According to The Guardian, Ferrari called an unscheduled media briefing after Horner said in a recent interview that running Ferrari would be his dream job. Ferrari communications chief Maria Conti, speaking for chair John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna, said the team had already made its choice and retained full confidence in Vasseur.
This was bigger than paddock gossip. Ferrari signaled to rivals, drivers, sponsors and staff that it will not tolerate a season of succession speculation while results are already under scrutiny. The move was swift and public. A rare move for a team that usually manages crises behind closed doors.
Performance becomes the only metric that matters now. If Ferrari improves, this looks like smart message control. If results slip further, every bad Sunday will revive the Horner chatter because public backing only buys time, not points.
Ferrari's emergency clarification says everything. Stable teams don't need to slam the door on outsiders who flirt in the press. They just ignore them. This move was less about Horner and more about Ferrari's real problem: not speed, but governance. The team has a habit of turning one disappointing stretch into a palace drama by Tuesday. Vasseur got the public backing today, but that backing is conditional on results. If the car doesn't improve, no statement will save him.
Filed to the World desk · Sep 29