Overview
- Ferrari issued an official statement on Tuesday renewing ‘full confidence’ in team principal Fred Vasseur and denying that Christian Horner will replace him, with the club saying it wants to end public speculation and restore focus.
- The team has not reached a podium since the Spa Grand Prix in July and returned from the summer break with five straight races without a top‑three finish, a slide that has widened the championship gap to rivals.
- Ferrari’s power unit programme is judged to have failed this season and the Aduo2 upgrade introduced at Monza did not deliver the expected gains, leaving Maranello technically behind engines from Mercedes and Red Bull.
- Christian Horner’s public offer to join Ferrari sparked the recent leadership talk but the club’s communications chief and multiple publications reported the board backed Vasseur, while former Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali urged unity and stability.
- The decision aims to limit disruption ahead of Sepang and Singapore, with pressure now on engineers who have already used available development tokens to find performance and on leaders to mend driver tensions between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.