Peter Sauber – founder of the Formula 1 team that bore his name – believes if team principal Fred Vasseur gets an offer to lead Ferrari, he should go for it.
Since Mattia Binotto resigned, speculation has been rife that Vasseur is the man set to succeed him at Maranello, which notably has had a revolving door for team bosses over the past decade.
According to Motoriomnline journo Piero Ladisa, the Frenchman has already bought a place to live in the Fiorano area suggesting that the deal is done for Vasseur to step up to the hottest seat in sport, aka Ferrari team principal.
Peter Sauber – whose team had success in the eighties and early nineties in Sportscar racing and Le Mans before he took his team to F1 for the 1993 season – urges Vasseur to take the job in Red but with a warning tied to the advice: “If he gets an offer from Ferrari, he has to go!
“But if you know the history of Ferrari – back to the company founder Enzo – then you know that the team bosses usually have a short ‘lifespan’ with the exception of Jean Todt, who ruled there for more than twelve years!” added Sauber.
His former team has had a couple of ‘facelifts’ over the years, morphing into BMW-Sauber at the height of their success in F1, but have traditionally been a midfield team used to develop young up-and-coming divers, particularly for drivers in the Ferrari pipeline, including the likes of Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and most recently Charles Leclerc.
Indeed Vassuer’s move to Ferrari will reunite him with Leclerc, who Vasseur has mentored over the years long before the Monegasque stepped up into F1.
Leclerc: He has always been very straightforward, very honest
Speaking to reporters at the FIA Awards, Leclerc said of the Vasseur speculation: “Ferrari is a very different team to any other team. I can only comment on my experience with Fred, which obviously, has been good.
“I’ve worked with Fred from the junior categories where he believed in me and we’ve always had a good relationship but apart from that, obviously, this shouldn’t influence any of the other decisions.
“He’s always been very straightforward, very honest and this is something that I like about Fred. Whether it’ll be him or not, I don’t know, and we’ll see hopefully in the next few months.
“Obviously it’s also not my decision, John [Elkann] and Benedetto [Vigna] will make the decision. We are just trying to focus our job on the simulator with the team in order to have the best racecar possible for next year,” said Leclerc.
As for filling Vasseur’s shoes at Hinwill should he indeed depart, ahead of the forthcoming 2026 partnership with Audi, their long-standing sports director Beat Zehnder is tipped to step up; Sauber concluded: “I’m glad I don’t have to solve this task! Beat is a phenomenon in this sport!”
Over to John and Benedetto…