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Ferrari respond to rumour that won’t go away; update over F1’s calendar lifeline — Pit Talk
Russell dominates, Mclaren disaster! | 02:24Ferrari has denied Frédéric Vasseur is under threat as team principal amid a flurry of media reports that he has fallen out of favour with key members of the famous racing brand.
The declaration follows the publication of an interview with Christian Horner in which the former Red Bull Racing chief said Ferrari was “the dream” and is the only team he would join without a demanding a shareholding. Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo?
Horner’s comments poured fuel on a fire that was already burning, with Ferrari’s slump in form in the second half of the season intensifying scrutiny on the team and its boss, with 2026 having been pegged as the year Ferrari returned to championship contention. Instead the team has won just two races for the year, and neither Lewis Hamilton nor Charles Leclerc has stepped onto the podium in the last five grands prix.
The downturn has coincided with reports in the Italian media that Vasseur’s relationship with Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna is “now virtually non-existent” and that his rapport with Hamilton, whom he had been instrumental in bringing to Ferrari last season, is “no longer what it used to be”. With the story escalating rather than fading away, Ferrari took the unusual step of hastily arranging a new conference to shut down the reports and reaffirm its faith in Vasseur.
“Ferrari’s position is clear, has not changed, and Ferrari has made its choices already,” said Conti, per The Race. “We have confidence, full confidence, in Fred Vasseur and in his team, and we continue to do so. ” Though neither Vigna nor Ferrari executive chairman John Elkann — who reportedly sounded out Horner about the job in 2022 before hiring Vasseur — was on the call, Conti said she spoke on behalf of the executive.
“Ferrari’s position is clear and does not change,” she said. “I don’t have John and Benedetto with me, but I’m of course aligned with the top management, and Ferrari has made its choices. “There is confidence in Fred Vasseur and his team. Nothing has changed, and we continue to do so.
That’s it. ”Ferrari typically refuses to engage with these sorts of rumours, but Conti said she wanted to avoid this weekend’s grand prix in Malaysia being dominated by speculation.
“The fact is that after the race and on Sunday and yesterday, this power of communication was increasing,” she said. “Normally it is going down. “Everybody — not just you guys , but also Italian media from all over the world — they are still creating a lot of different stories around Fred, and this is not useful, so this is why we decided to do that.
” Though Conti said Ferrari’s rebuttal was “not just related to the story in the Times of Mr Horner”, though she said it wasn’t surprising to hear he would be interested in joining the team.
“Ferrari has always attracted extraordinary interest, and it is only natural that many professionals aspire to be part of it,” she said. Vettel & Webber's infamous 2013 incident | 01:23Italy’s Imola circuit has begun preparations to host the season-closing grand prix in December in case Formula 1 cannot travel to Qatar and Abu Dhabi as planned.
The calendar is scheduled to end with a triple-header weekend comprising the Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi grands prix, but the final two legs of that run remain in doubt due to the ongoing war in the Middle East. The deadline for a decision had originally been set for the middle of September by F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali on logistics grounds.
That included not just freight, which is dispatched well ahead of time for races outside Europe, but also the need for Imola to set up the infrastructure required to host a grand prix as well as advertise and sell tickets. However, teams confirmed in Azerbaijan that Domenicali has pushed the deadline back to the middle of October, potentially as late as five weeks before the commencement of the triple-header, to maximise the chances of running both events.
Qatar and Abu Dhabi pay among the highest fees of any venue to host their races, both being state-backed events, with reports suggesting they could contribute around $100 million each to F1 revenue for sanctioning rights alone. If Formula 1 were to call off both events unilaterally, it would not receive these fees, but if the events themselves declare their races cannot happen, then they would still be liable to pay.
Both organisers have continued with preparations for their races, and both insist that the geopolitical situation is sufficiently safe to hold a major sporting event. Imola has nonetheless been given the green light to begin preparing infrastructure, but F1 has reportedly guaranteed the venue that it will pay set-up costs if the event does not end up happening.
Source: Getty Images Max Verstappen said last week that he would prefer the sport did not travel to the Middle East in light of the ongoing conflict.
“Normally I am happy to go to Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but you know, when there is a war nearby, and if some of the countries are in conflict with each other, then I think we shouldn’t go,” he told ViaPlay. Lewis Hamilton, however, said he wanted to go because “things seem okay”.
“I love going to the Middle East. From what I have read, things seem okay out there, but I don’t have all the information, and I don’t know what the risk levels are.
“I trust in Stefano to make the right decision for the sport, and I do hope we get to go there. ”Esteban Ocon has forcefully argued that he deserves a place in Formula 1 after finishing eighth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Ocon is widely tipped to lose his Haas seat and his place in Formula 1 at the end of the season after declaring himself a “free agent” for 2027 but with almost every seat already accounted for.
Ferrari junior Rafael Câmara is the favourite to claim his job, with Haas reserve driver Jack Doohan also reportedly in the frame. Eighth in Baku, up from 13th on the grid and one place ahead of teammate Oliver Bearman, is Ocon’s highest finish of the season and breaks an eight-rounds scoreless drought. With Bearman scoring two points after finishing ninth, the result consolidates Haas in seventh on the title table, 10 points ahead of Audi.
“Super happy with the result,” Ocon said, per Autosport. “When the car is working, that’s what we deserve. “We had a strong car since the beginning of the weekend, we took all the right decisions on the pit stop and on the safety car. Speaking in a separate interview, he launched into a strong defence of his place in Formula 1.
“I won every championship that I’ve raced . I won races in Formula Renault, I won championships in go-karts, I won Formula 3, I won GP3, I was racing in the top 10 in DTM for half a season, I won in Formula 1. I can do it, you know?