Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur accused some members of the Italian media of “disrespecting” the team by writing stories speculating over the future of some staff members.
Vasseur is among those who has been a focus of stories casting doubt on his future. However the stories about those working for him were the focus of his ire.
“It’s not about myself, I think, because this I can manage,” he said in today’s FIA press conference. It’s more about the people of the team.
“To throw their name like this, I think it’s just disrespectful for them, for their family. We had the case last year with the chief of aero already. We had some other names this season.”
He said the stories have been an unhelpful distraction. “It’s really hurting the team,” he said. “It’s, at one stage, a lack of focus.
“When you are fighting for the championship, every single detail makes the difference. And from the beginning of the weekend, we are just speaking about this.
“If it’s their target to put the team in this situation, they reached their goal. It’s not like this that we’ll be able to win a championship. And at least not with these kind of journalists around us.”
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Vasseur said it is not fair for his staff members to read reports suggesting they might be replaced. “They are working very hard and to decide one day that ‘this one will be replaced, this one is useless’, honestly, it’s very harsh.
“These journalists, and I’m not putting everybody in the same basket, but they have to consider that these people, they have families, they have wives, they have kids. And this is completely disrespectful. But I don’t want to speak anymore about this stupidity.”
Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc gave their backing to Vasseur yesterday after his future at the team was called into question in some reports. But Vasseur stressed he is more concerned about the focus being put on other team members.
“I can understand [the drivers’] reaction because we are working on a day-to-day basis. We are working to reach a target, and we are working all together. And it’s not about me.
“Again, I knew before, I knew perfectly that I’m exposed. The issue is not the team principal because we are fully aware [of the scrutiny]. The issue in this kind of situation is more the people of the team and this is affecting me much more than my own position, you know what I mean?
“At one stage, we have to consider that the people who are in every single team on the grid, they are all working very hard. They are putting in all of their energy. Sometimes they are making sacrifices for their family and so on.
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“And to put names like this [in] the paper, I think it’s very, very harsh. You have to understand that when a journalist is saying ‘Ferrari will recruit this name for this position,’ there is someone already in that position. And Sunday evening, the guy says, ‘Okay, tomorrow morning, I won’t have a job anymore because if what is in the newspaper is true, I will have someone in my position.’ And it’s the same for all the people working under that person.
“We are in this situation on a daily basis now in Italy. And too much is too much. Honestly, if they want to be successful, at one stage, we also have to be able to work in a clean environment. And we are not in that situation so far.”
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