Formula 1 News: Little known about Vasseur’s paddock exit – report

(GMM) At the height of raging speculation about his future in red, Frederic Vasseur suddenly vanished from the paddock in Austria.

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

Both in Canada and again throughout the weekend at the Red Bull Ring, paddock sages have been reporting that Ferrari is contemplating not renewing team boss Vasseur’s three-year contract beyond the end of this year.

Whether the 57-year-old Frenchman’s sudden departure on Sunday is related to that speculation is completely unknown.

“At the moment, no more has emerged on the matter,” admitted Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, meanwhile, noted: “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.”

He was replaced on Sunday by deputy team boss and former F1 driver Jerome d’Ambrosio – who kept his post-race comments away from the Vasseur topic.

All the Belgian would say on that matter is: “Fred and I speak to each other 20 times a day.”

The 39-year-old d’Ambrosio preferred to talk about the success of the new floor upgrade, which powered Charles Leclerc to the podium on Sunday.

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

He was also asked about the latest tension between Lewis Hamilton and his race engineer, Riccardo Adami.

“After I explained the situation to Lewis,” d’Ambrosio said, referring to the on-radio disagreement about race strategy, “he immediately accepted and understood.”

When asked about Hamilton’s troubles more broadly, he added: “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.

“But today, he had a strong race, always close to Charles. Lewis is definitely a winner. He simply knows everything, and for us as a team, it’s important to find the balance.

“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.”

Making a rare paddock appearance in Austria was former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who was naturally asked about the current Vasseur-related unrest.

“I hope he 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.

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

“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,” Ecclestone smiled.