Vasseur issues Ferrari update amid ‘angry’ engineers and ‘relations strained’ reports

Amid claims in Italy of some “angry” Ferrari engineers over comments made by Charles Leclerc, and “strained relations” between departments, Fred Vasseur’s look ahead to the United States Grand Prix brought clarity.

As the Ferrari team principal acknowledged the difficulties of recent weekends – the Scuderia battling to keep pace in the scrap for second in the Constructors’ Championship – Ferrari is a team “united”, Vasseur insists, arriving at the Circuit of The Americas.

Ferrari a ‘united’ front going into United States GP

The competition has grown increasingly fierce for Ferrari. Red Bull are reaping the rewards of a continued RB21 upgrades push, with Max Verstappen having won two of the last four grands prix, Monza and Baku. He has not finished lower than second across that spell.

Mercedes meanwhile has made improvements, with George Russell taking his second win of the season last time out in Singapore. That race made it five in a row for Ferrari without a podium, and afterwards, Leclerc gave a rather blunt assessment.

“Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull, and then there’s us,” he claimed.

“It’s not easy, obviously, because you want to fight for better positions. But at the moment, it just feels like we are passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more.”

With Leclerc playing down hopes of much better than Singapore to come for Ferrari – a P6 finish and P8 for Lewis Hamilton having been influenced by braking issues – reports began to swirl afterwards in the Italian media about Ferrari discontent.

Corriere dello Sport referenced a section of engineers ‘who are angry with Leclerc for his uncompromising criticism of the car and how it is managed’, while La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that ‘relations between the various departments of the team are strained.’

Vasseur hushed such talk ahead of the United States Grand Prix, which will see the F1 Sprint format back in action.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“After two street circuits, we return to a permanent track at COTA, which offers a very interesting mix of corners,” said Vasseur.

“It’s a layout that demands precision from everyone – the team in terms of set-up and the drivers in feeling at one with the car. The weekend will be even more challenging with the Sprint format, giving us just one free practice session before heading straight into competitive sessions.

“We know we haven’t maximised the potential of our package in the last few races, but the team is united and fully determined to turn things around.”

Ferrari sit third in the Constructors’ Championship standings heading into Austin. The gap to Mercedes in second in 27 points. McLaren secured back-to-back Constructors’ crowns in Singapore with six rounds of F1 2025 to spare.

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