Vasseur goes missing as Ferrari speculation intensifies

In the midst of growing speculation over his long-term future at Ferrari, team principal Frederic Vasseur abruptly left the Austrian Grand Prix paddock on Sunday.

“Fred will not be at the track today, because he has had to return home for personal reasons," a Ferrari spokesperson confirmed.

While officially attributed to personal matters, Vasseur’s sudden departure came as rumours once again intensified regarding Ferrari’s potential decision not to renew his three-year contract, which expires at the end of 2025.

Whether the 57-year-old Frenchman's early exit is linked to that speculation remains unclear. Corriere dello Sport admitted: “At the moment, no more has emerged on the matter.”

Meanwhile, La Gazzetta dello Sport pointed out the significance of the moment: “This is the first time that the team principal will not be at the helm of the pitwall since he took over the team in 2023.”

In his absence, deputy team boss Jerome d’Ambrosio - a former Formula 1 driver - assumed command of Ferrari’s operations at the Red Bull Ring. However, the 39-year-old Belgian avoided addressing the Vasseur situation directly.

“Fred and I speak to each other 20 times a day,” d’Ambrosio remarked, sidestepping the leadership question. Instead, he focused on Ferrari’s upgraded floor package, which helped propel Charles Leclerc to a podium finish.

“The underbody builds on the philosophy of the old one and exactly what we hoped it would,” he said.

D’Ambrosio was also asked about Lewis Hamilton’s latest in-race radio disagreement with engineer Riccardo Adami over strategy.

“After I explained the situation to Lewis, he immediately accepted and understood,” he said.

More broadly, he defended Hamilton’s form, acknowledging some inconsistency between qualifying and race pace but expressing confidence in his adaptation.

“What we see internally is that he has had everything under control in qualifying over the last three races, but not quite so well in the race,” d’Ambrosio noted. “But today, he had a strong race, always close to Charles. Lewis is definitely a winner. He simply knows everything.”

He continued: “We do certain things differently as a team, and he has to find his feet and adapt. But this adjustment period is smooth, and he gets along well with Charles, too.”

Also making an appearance in Austria was former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who didn’t shy away from offering his view on Ferrari’s potential leadership shakeup.

“I hope he (Vasseur) can do his job because it's wrong to constantly replace one person with another,” said the 94-year-old. “Because the one who comes is not happy with the one who came before him and what he did.”

Ecclestone added that Ferrari’s problem lies deeper than individual personnel.

“If they want to change things, they need to change the people at the top,” he said. “I think the problem is that there was no one in charge, everyone felt like they were in charge.”

With a grin, he concluded: “They need one guy who will really and truly say ‘this is how it's going to be’. They need to bring Luca Montezemolo back.”