Fred Vasseur's Jokes About Future at Ferrari: Truth Behind the Humour

Jun.20 -  Frederic Vasseur's joke about needing "another job" may be closer to the truth than the Formula 1 world already suspects.

According to Corriere della Sera, Ferrari already has the Frenchman's successor lined up - the Italian marque's WEC boss, Antonello Coletta.

Vasseur, 57, joked about it on the red carpet after attending the New York premiere of the new F1 feature film.  "Am I thinking of becoming an actor?" he laughed.

"Perhaps yes - I'm already looking for another job," he joked to the French broadcaster Canal Plus.

Ignazio La Russa, the president of the Italian Senate, has another figure in mind to lead Ferrari's F1 effort.

"Flavio (Briatore) would be an asset that could give a real shake-up to Ferrari," he told Italian radio Rai.

"He wouldn't just be content with progress - he could do more, with serious reforms.  Yes, Flavio is a good friend of mine, but everything he does, he does well.

"However, Ferrari is in such a state now that even if we appointed the most wonderful manager, I don't think it would be enough," La Russa added.

"Unlike my son, I have little to do with motoring, but I believe that the issue is much deeper than just a change of team principal."

Italian former F1 driver Jarno Trulli thinks Ferrari is targeting the wrong figure in the obviously-endangered Vasseur, whose contract runs out this year.

"It seems that there is a technical director missing," he said.

"Last year, a certain (Adrian) Newey was available," Trulli told La Stampa.  "Maranello needs a person who can design a car.  It's very similar to what I had at Toyota in 2009 - the car was competitive only at times."

Others think the source of Ferrari's troubles is that it is located in Italy - far from the heart of the world of F1 factories in England.

"I get the impression that Lewis (Hamilton) wants to get involved, but that there are perhaps too many decision-makers," said Hamilton's former Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg.

"I'm also hearing that Ferrari is once again toying with the idea of setting up an office in Great Britain, simply because the entire Formula 1 ecosystem is there," the 2016 world champion told Sky.

Briatore, currently executive advisor at Alpine, agrees.

"It's difficult to win in Formula 1," he said.  "Ferrari doesn't need new bosses - they've had enough of those.  They need to become more international.

"They must finally open a technical centre in England.  If you want to make champagne, it's smarter to be in France," Briatore added.

However, a powerful figure at the company - founder Enzo Ferrari's son Piero - insists that setting up a Ferrari office in England in the late 80s was a major mistake.

"My biggest mistake was John Barnard," he is quoted as saying by Speed Week.  "I was the one who persuaded my father to hire the Englishman in 1986.  I believed we needed a mastermind from abroad.

"But Barnard was never able to fit into our culture.  It was an incredible mistake that I regret to this day.  We must return to the winning path ourselves, without injecting genes that are incompatible with ours," Ferrari, 80, concluded.

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