The Mercedes team principal is close friends with Vasseur, who is under pressure at the Scuderia
Toto Wolff has backed close friend Fred Vasseur to turn Ferrari’s fortunes around after a disappointing start to the 2025 F1 season.
While McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes have all won at least one of the first 12 races, Ferrari are yet to land a grand prix victory and star driver Lewis Hamilton has not finished on the podium yet.
Ferrari’s underwhelming first half of the season has put Ferrari team principal Vasseur’s position in some doubt, but Wolff urged the Italian outfit to stick with the Frenchman.
“It seems to be a bit of a revolving door with teams generally,” Wolff said, regarding team principal change-ups in the sport. “I think in F1, you can’t buy time, and you need to give senior leadership the time to get on top of things.
“Look at us. I’m not enjoying being in a phase where it’s the third year in a row that we are not fighting for a championship. We’re not useless. We have really good weekends. We’re winning races. It’s respectable at times.
“And when it’s not good, nobody’s questioning in a way whether the top guy is doing a good job or not. Leave him the space. Let him do [things]. They need to just let them do [things].”
Vasseur, 57, was previously at Sauber and Renault. Prior to that, he ran the ART junior team in Formula 2 from 2005-2017, and it was at the start of that stint that he first worked with Hamilton in GP2.
“Fred is one of the best racing managers that I know,” Wolff, who saw Hamilton leave Mercedes after 12 years for Vasseur’s team in the off-season, added.
“If I wasn’t here, I would take Fred. So, I respect him a lot. He’s a great personality. He’s a straightforward guy. He doesn’t do politics and lies. He knows what he’s talking about.
“He just needs to be given the trust to run this. He’s perfectly aware that in Italy, it’s like managing the football national team. You’re going to have the scrutiny from the media.
“Maybe that’s something you need to grow a little bit of a thick skin, because if he wins, he is Jesus Christ, and if you lose, you’re a loser. That’s how Italy is. That’s fantastic.
“That’s the passion that is in there. You’ve got to embrace that. Maybe that’s something he needs to learn. But the rest, he should be given the confidence in running this team. They won’t get anybody better.”
Despite not winning a race, Ferrari are second in the constructors’ championship, 12 points ahead of Mercedes in third, but a whopping 238 points off leaders McLaren.
The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps (25-27 July).
Category: General Sports
