Inside Ferrari's Ambitious Plan to Restructure with a 'Super Boss'
Jul.10 - Another secret of Ferrari's 2025 woes may have just emerged.
A new floor debuted recently, and new rear suspension is slated to race for the first time at Spa, but an exasperated Charles Leclerc hinted at a more fundamental problem at the end of the British GP weekend.
"It's not a balance issue, it's not a grip issue," he said. "I don't want to go into details, but it's just something very strange that we have to combat in the car.
"Especially at high speed, it makes it even more difficult. I hope we can solve it. I can't go into details, I'm sorry."
Team boss Frederic Vasseur was also giving nothing away.
"Charles also said he won't disclose it," said the Frenchman. "I have to follow team orders - I won't disclose it.
"It can be fixed, but it's true that we're struggling with something."
Sport1 believes the problem is related to the power steering system, which struggles to fully and consistently operate at high speed. Lewis Hamilton also said at Silverstone that "there are things with this car that we absolutely cannot carry over to next year".
The latest rumblings come at a tricky period for Vasseur, after Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna admitted at Silverstone that he is currently "discussing" the team principal's expiring contract.
Corriere dello Sport points out that at recent races, Vasseur has been closely observed by Ferrari executives. "In Montreal it was Piero Ferrari," the report began.
"In Austria it was (HR boss) Michele Antoniazzi, and at Silverstone it was Vigna."
The newspaper believes Vigna's idea is to tweak the leadership structure of the team by emulating the way the McLaren and Sauber-Audi teams are set up.
"Elkann would like to make Vasseur's supervision permanent by appointing a super-boss to oversee him, replacing Zak Brown-Andrea Stella of Ferrari or Mattia Binotto-Jonathan Wheatley of Sauber," Corriere dello Sport revealed.
"But Fred isn't one to accept constraints, as he demonstrated at the beginning of 2023, when he asked (John) Elkann for full operational control and a free hand from CEO Vigna," correspondent Fulvio Solms said.
"He got everything he wanted. So at this point, the Frenchman, with his full powers, is under discussion."
When asked about the uncertainty at Silverstone, Vasseur said simply: "We have to negotiate, and that's what we're doing."
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I've noticed over time that Charles is especially obsessed to say anything along the lines of 'not going into details' for the sake of saying despite the saying 'goes without saying' which applies to most situations, especially when no one is asking for any specific explanation in the first place, not to mention twice in the same sentence (which didn't come up to me on qualifying day when I first read these quoted words) as if one wouldn't be enough in any case, so he's clearly more hell-bent than anyone else not that I've even heard or read some drivers ever using any similar word combos, not even Lewis, for that matter.
People should be aware of what the saying 'goes without saying' truly means, & therefore avoid saying more than necessary at the very minimum, not to mention anything off-topic to the relevant point or redundantly more than once on the same occasion.
Fred apparently read the same interview since he knew what Charles had said.
However, the term 'team order' in the traditional sense is only applicable to racing between any teammate combo.
Nevertheless, just like with what hampered Ferrari in the Spanish GP, this matter should also be okay to disclose in the distant future since nothing stays up-to-date relevant forever, especially in F1 with technical regulation cycle changes & everything.
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