Ferrari finished the F1 2025 season as fourth in the WCC, which is a drop down from last year when they finished second; team principal Fred Vasseur joined Ferrari in 2023 after current Team principal for Sauber left. Under the Italian’s watch in 2022, Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ranked 2nd and 5th in the Drivers’ Championship, respectively.
Since Vasseur joined, he has struggled to see his Ferrari drivers high in the standings. In 2024, he saw Leclerc up in 3rd and Sainz 5th. With the addition of Lewis Hamilton, more was expected. However the drivers finished 5th and 6th during the F1 2025 season. The car was underwhelming.
Criticism from the drivers
The team’s last race at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP was solid with Leclerc in fourth and Hamilton in eighth. Leclerc was unable to secure a podium and chase down WDC winner Lando Norris. The Ferrari drivers had lots to say to about their F1 2025 season, but the French team principal does not concern himself with statements moments after they get out of the car.
He states, “I don’t pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen”.
Feedback to improve
The former Sauber team principal mentions that be prioritizes constructive feedback and a focus on improvement during the F1 2025 season. He has been in F1 for almost a decade now and is not new to seeing drivers get emotional on the radio. He mentions Leclerc as self-critical but generally positive.
“The most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results.
“The fact that they are emotional sometimes on the radio and it depends on the guys… all of you know Charles. [He] is always a bit of critical with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it’s always with a positive dynamic.
Fred Vasseur and Leclerc go way back, having met years before either joined F1 and have a strong bond. The Frenchman previously ran ART in lower categories. He knows his driver through and through and doesn’t bat an eye to any criticism. He tends to look at the overall picture and focus on making improvements throughout the F1 2025 season. With almost 10-years of experience in F1, Vasseur knows that its the constant push forward that gets you to the top.
“I know Charles for 15 years, 16 years and he was always like this. He was always complaining about everything. But it’s a positive dynamic that we are there just to do a better job.
“It doesn’t matter if you are P4, P3, P1. The DNA is to do a better job. I accept this perfectly and the most important [thing] for me is that they keep the same approach to the debriefing. To try to get a better car, a better team, a better everything and it’s like this that we will improve.”
Honesty is the best policy
Fred Vasseur still believes that criticism from the drivers is important throughout the F1 2025 season. He says he would hate to see drivers inappropriately say the team is doing great. Their goal as a team is the improve and find new ways to do just that.
“I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job,” he added. “The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Always that I’m not there to have [drivers telling me] ‘we are doing a good job on this and this and this’.
It’s in their DNA
The Ferrari team principal says that it’s in everyone’s nature to try and improve during the F1 2025 season. However, they have a process in place so that drivers can give feedback directly to the team every race. Vasseur is happy to listen to their direct and honest complaints because the ultimate goal for everyone is to improve.
“But their DNA and my DNA is to try to push the team to do a better job. It means, they have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, when it’s not Lewis, it’s Charles, it’s both of them. They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit. Everywhere, on every single area and for sure, we can improve and we can improve everywhere.
Fred Vasseur credits Leclerc for pushing the team until the end of the 2024 F1 season as the WCC was decided in the last race. This was seen again in the F1 2025 campaign, where the WDC was a three-way fight that came down to the F1 Abu Dhabi GP. The same mentality applies and Vasseur continues to affirm that this is the nature of the sport.
“But last year, we were fighting until the last corner and the reaction was exactly the same. And Charles said, ‘OK guys, we have to improve on every single area. The simulator, the set-up, the aero’.
“This is the DNA of their job and the DNA of our sport. I’m not shocked at all when they are coming to me and say, Fred, we have to improve on this, this, this, this, this because it’s what we are asking them to do.”
