By James Broughton, June 23, 2025
Fred Vasseur, the Scuderia Ferrari team principal since 2023, was previously the team boss at Renault, Sauber, and Alfa Romeo. He founded the GP2 Series team ART Grand Prix, which won multiple titles, including back-to-back championships with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in 2005 and 2006. The rest, as they say, is history.
Vasseur may appear like a jovial, unassuming pub landlord from the south of France, but he’s actually a university graduate in aeronautical engineering.
His relaxed demeanour isn’t a carefully constructed image—it’s his true, unfiltered personality. Ferrari is a serious team that hires serious people, and Vasseur represents perhaps the most unconventional team boss the Scuderia has appointed in recent years. His mission is simple: to make Ferrari great again, much like his fellow countryman Jean Todt did during the dominant Schumacher era.
Vasseur’s approach to leading Ferrari is the most relaxed seen in recent memory. He enjoys pranking his colleagues, joking around, and living in the moment. It leaves many wondering: Is this the right man for the job? He certainly doesn’t fit the mould of a typical Ferrari hire. Yet, his track record speaks for itself. Before joining Ferrari, he successfully ran several technology businesses.
The Pub Landlord Team Boss
So, don’t judge Fred Vasseur by his easygoing, happy-go-lucky appearance. He may seem like the kind of man who sings with regulars at the bar and shouts, “Drinks are on the house!”—but when it comes to Ferrari, he is deadly serious.
Ferrari, however, has a long-standing tradition of impatience with its F1 program. Winning is paramount, and results matter more than camaraderie or charm. Vasseur has been leading the Scuderia since 2023, and already, he’s under the Ferrari microscope, with rumours swirling about potential replacements. That’s just the Ferrari way.
Some argue that Vasseur needs more time. But Ferrari has been misfiring for years. The team last won a drivers’ championship in 2007 with Kimi Räikkönen, and their most recent constructors’ title came in 2008. Team principals have come and gone in the 18 years since, as the team continues to struggle under the weight of internal politics and a culture driven by fear of failure.
As an F1 organization, Ferrari moves cautiously and engineers its program meticulously. Modern Formula 1 is driven by virtual design and data-heavy analysis to simulate real-world performance. Yet, despite the technology, Ferrari has consistently missed the mark, and those missteps began long before Fred Vasseur arrived.
Whether Fred Vasseur stays or goes is not the central issue—everyone is replaceable eventually. The real issue lies within Ferrari itself: an immovable institution, burdened by tradition and the weight of past glories. Perhaps Ferrari could take a cue from Vasseur—relax, step back now and then, and embrace failure as a path to learning. In doing so, it might finally gain a clearer perspective.