Ferrari have nailed their colors to the mast with a fresh multi-year deal for Frederic Vasseur — and Martin Brundle reckons it’s the right play. The Sky F1 pundit didn’t dress it up, though: running Ferrari is the best job in Formula 1 and, simultaneously, the worst. The payoff is enormous. So is the pressure.
This wasn’t a decision made from a position of strength. Ferrari entered 2025 talking about a title push; instead, McLaren have become the benchmark and Maranello are leading the chase for second. That wobble set off the usual Italian media storm over Vasseur’s future. The noise evaporated before the Hungarian Grand Prix, when Ferrari confirmed the extension and doubled down on their man.
Brundle’s logic is blunt: stability over another reset. Ferrari have burned too many months over the years with new bosses sweeping in, shaking up structures and waiting for confidence to return. Vasseur’s value has been in getting people aligned and focused, not looking over their shoulders. You don’t junk that because of a bruising summer.
Jamie Chadwick, a multiple W Series champion and a sharp watcher of the F1 paddock, agrees on continuity — with a caveat. The real audit arrives in 2026. That’s when the new rules rip up the form book again, and the choices made now either launch Ferrari forward or trap them in familiar peaks and troughs.
Those 2026 cars will be trimmer and lighter, with active aero replacing today’s DRS crutch. Pirelli’s tyres shrink, and the power units move to a near 50/50 split between electric deployment and the internal combustion engine running on fully sustainable fuel. Energy management will go from important to fundamental. Translation: operational discipline and integrated design matter more than ever. That’s Vasseur’s wheelhouse.
Ferrari’s immediate job is twofold. Keep the current campaign tidy — McLaren aren’t easing off — and funnel every sensible resource into that 2026 cliff edge without tripping over short-term points. That’s where Vasseur earns the contract: keeping a combustible operation calm, decisive and believing.
Is it brutal? Of course. Ferrari is a pressure cooker that never cools, and it’s not lost on anyone that the same intensity that makes it the most coveted team boss role also makes it the least forgiving. But if you buy the thesis that Ferrari’s problem has often been instability — and recent history doesn’t argue otherwise — then doubling down on Vasseur is the adult move.
Now comes the hard part: turning steadiness into silverware.
