Ferrari’s roller-coaster 2025 season produced plenty of blunt commentary from Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton – the kind that tends to ignite headlines and stir debate among fans, and in the executive suite at Maranello.
But while the outside world dissects every frustrated radio call and post-session lament, team principal Fred Vasseur remains strikingly unbothered. To him, the real story unfolds far from the microphones.
Speaking after the Scuderia wrapped up its season in Abu Dhabi with fourth and eighth place, Vasseur said he pays virtually no attention to his drivers’ emotional outbursts that have become public talking points.
“I don't pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen,” he insisted. “The most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results.”
Vasseur stressed that Leclerc’s intensity – sometimes visible in terse radio messages or sharp self-critique – is nothing new to him.
“The fact that they are emotional sometimes on the radio and it depends on the guys... all of you know Charles. [He] is always a bit of critical with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it's always with a positive dynamic.
“I know Charles for 10 years, [since he was] 16 years and he was always like this. He was always complaining about everything. But it's a positive dynamic that we are there just to do a better job.”
Whether Ferrari finishes first or fourth, Vasseur said the internal culture demands continuous improvement.
“It doesn't matter if you are P4, P3, P1. The DNA is to do a better job,” he said.
“I accept this perfectly and the most important [thing] for me is that they keep the same approach to the debriefing. To try to get a better car, a better team, a better everything and it's like this that we will improve.”
Encouraging Criticism, Not Silencing It
Vasseur argues that silencing criticism would be a warning sign – not a solution.
“I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job,” he said.
“The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Always that I'm not there to have [drivers telling me] 'we are doing a good job on this and this and this'.”
He emphasised that pushing the team to its limits is an essential part of both drivers’ responsibilities.
“But their DNA and my DNA is to try to push the team to do a better job. It means, they have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, when it's not Lewis, it's Charles, it's both of them.
“They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit. Everywhere, on every single area and for sure, we can improve and we can improve everywhere.”
Vasseur also pointed out that even in last year’s title fight – a far more competitive campaign for the Italian outfit – the internal tone was identical.
“But last year, we were fighting until the last corner and the reaction was exactly the same. And Charles said, ‘OK guys, we have to improve on every single area. The simulator, the set-up, the aero’.
“This is the DNA of their job and the DNA of our sport. I'm not shocked at all when they are coming to me and say, Fred, we have to improve on this, this, this, this, this because it's what we are asking them to do.”
For Vasseur, the passion, the pressure, and even the pointed comments are simply signs that Ferrari’s drivers are doing exactly what he expects: pushing the Scuderia forward, one hard conversation at a time.
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