Fred Vasseur faces growing pressure after Ferrari’s disastrous 2025 season

Formula 1 2025 was expected to show improvement at Ferrari under Fred Vasseur. Having an excellent driver pairing and faith within the squad, people predicted Ferrari to compete frequently at the top.

Rather, the season turned out to be a frustrating and underperforming season. Ferrari was unable to win a single race in the year and was fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, which was very weak considering the team's standards.As a team with the history of Ferrari, not winning a single race at the end of the season is never easy. With the fact that results were declining and competitors were getting better, focus gradually moved to leadership.

Although Vasseur has been successful in inviting stability and peace following years of internal instability, his failure to deliver in 2025 has put more pressure on him as the man to lead Ferrari.

What did Ferrari get wrong in the 2025 campaign

Inconsistency was the core issue of Ferrari in 2025. The car was promising on some weekends, but it could hardly perform well in extended-distance racing. The absence of pace was not often compensated for by strategy choices, and improvements did not come as fast as they needed to narrow the gap between their competitors, such as Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes.

One of the biggest twists was when Ferrari chose to end most of the work on the 2025 car early in the season. The team decided to invest in the 2026 project that will be constructed based on entirely new technical regulations. Fred Vasseur himself confessed later that the decision was logically sound on paper, but the fact that the team had underestimated how harmful it would be psychologically to continue the rest of the season with the knowledge that improvements were going to be confined.

How 2026 has become an iconic year in Vasseur's life

Due to the challenging 2025 campaign, the focus is on what Ferrari brings in 2026. The regulation restart gives a possibility to start afresh, and Vasseur has clarified that this is where Ferrari believes it can restart its competitiveness. There is confidence internally that the fate of lessons learned in 2025 will create a car that is stronger and a direction that is clearer.Nevertheless, the first race will be very demanding. There will be fans, media, and the leadership of Ferrari who will be seeking evident improvements. The year 2026 will not be just another year for Fred Vasseur; for him, it is time to see the results of his long-term plan.