Fred Vasseur has called for serenity and unity at Ferrari amid rampant speculation surrounding his position as team principal. The rumors intensified after former Red Bull boss Christian Horner publicly expressed interest in joining the Italian squad. Ferrari took the unusual step of holding a hastily arranged media call to publicly back Vasseur ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
"When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all the week, I think as a team we need to work in serenity and it was absolutely not the case," Fred Vasseur said during an FIA press conference on Friday at Sepang. "I think the statement, it was mandatory to do something, or it would have been the same this weekend. Honestly, the big issue that we have today is the stability, the serenity into the team, the focus that we need to have, and not to have this kind of question all the day."
Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have also thrown their support behind Vasseur. Hamilton launched a passionate defence of his team principal on Thursday, urging critics to "point fingers somewhere else", appearing to suggest that Ferrari's hierarchy must also take responsibility for its current struggles. Vasseur warned it would be a "huge mistake" for Ferrari to start playing the blame game.
"On the comment of Lewis, I think it would be a mistake to finger-point someone or something, or whatever," the Frenchman said. "In the good moments, we are winning as a team; in the bad moments, we are suffering as a team. I don't want to speak about single individual or whatever. Honestly, I think it would be a huge mistake to start to not be unified."
Ferrari had a positive start to the season but has struggled in recent races. Vasseur stressed that the team wants to win more and fight for the championship. "We had a good beginning of the season, that for sure it's not enough, that we want to get more, we want to win more, we want to win the championship. But at the end of the day, we had a positive start. We are struggling the last couple of races, but we are hoping to come back soon with development and to be back into the pace."
Vasseur acknowledged that criticism and media scrutiny come with the territory at Ferrari, especially with the team's near-two-decade title drought. "When you take the role, you know the positive and the negative side of the job. I was expecting something like this. What is sometimes a bit unfair is when you put someone under the bus," he said. "I'm there also to defend my team, my guys. As I said before, when we are winning, we are winning as a team, but when we are struggling, I'm there to defend them, all of them."
With pressure mounting, Vasseur hopes Ferrari can return to form through car development. He emphasized the importance of focus and teamwork for the remainder of the season. "I think it's the right attitude from everybody: from them to defend the team principal, from me to defend them when we are struggling. Now, honestly, I knew what I will get, and I'm not surprised at all. But sometimes the attacks are a bit unfair."
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