Formula 1 that thrives on speed, precision, and cutthroat competition, but Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has found himself battling an entirely different beast lately: the Italian media’s runaway imagination.
Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, whispers of Vasseur’s job being on the chopping block swirled alongside a bizarre claim that Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics, Enrico Balbo, was supposedly packing his bags for Maranello.
In a moment that would be comical if it weren’t so potentially disruptive, Vasseur responded with a blend of exasperation and dry humour to the gossip, admitting he had to resort to Google to figure out who Balbo was, as he had never heard of the Red Bull engineer.
“I spoke about the story with Balbo,” Vasseur told the media in Montreal, with thinly veiled irritation.
“It is a good example as it was in the press that we had signed Balbo, but I had to Google him because I didn't know him. I had never met him before.”
A Wild Rumour and a Real-World Impact
It’s the kind of headline that can destabilize even the most tightly run operation – one employee out, another in, and an entire department potentially in flux.
The truth? Far from it. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences as Vasseur insisted.
“Can you imagine if Diego [Tondi], who is head of aerodynamics, had seen something like this in the press?” the Frenchman said. “It would be quite harsh for him, not knowing if it is true or not.”
And that’s the point. As light-hearted as googling a colleague might sound, Vasseur stressed that these speculative stories introduce unnecessary uncertainty and unease inside a high-pressure environment already tasked with chasing championship success.
“This is putting a kind of... tension is not the right word, but distraction into the team,” he added. “And at the end of the day, we are in a competition with other teams, and if we are distracted or not focused on the right thing, we will lose.”
With Ferrari under increasing pressure to return to the top step of the podium – and Lewis Hamilton’s arrival in 2025 ramping up expectations—the last thing the team needs is phantom shake-ups sowing confusion within its own ranks.
“It Would Have Been Better to Stay Out”
The timing of the Balbo rumour followed another speculative bombshell – claims that Vasseur himself was on the chopping block following Ferrari’s underwhelming start to the season.
That storyline, too, was emphatically shut down in Montreal by both Vasseur and his drivers, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton offering their full backing for the Frenchman.
Still, the damage was done. And Vasseur, though composed, didn’t shy away from calling out the weight these headlines can carry, especially when they spread unchecked.
“I will have to read the press, but again, to close this chapter because I don't want to put oil on the [fire], when I signed for Ferrari, I was perfectly aware that I can't blame someone except myself,” Vasseur said.
“If I didn't want to have this kind of story, it would have been better to stay out, but it is very, very harsh for the team, for 1500 people, to have your name spread around like this in the press.”
Read also: Rosberg says Ferrari plotting dramatic operational skake-upAnd now, it’s not just Vasseur’s own name that keeps cropping up.
“Now, each day, I have people coming into my office asking, 'Is it true?', [The answer is]: 'No, it is not true.'”
Vasseur might have laughed off the Balbo rumour with a quick Google search, but the broader issue remains serious.
In a sport where success hinges on unity, focus, and precision, even fiction – when reported as fact – can send a team skidding off course.
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