Jacques Villeneuve on under-fire Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur: “That’s the price to pay”
Jacques Villeneuve has his say on the criticism Fred Vasseur is facing at Ferrari.
1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes criticism and media scrutiny is the “price to pay” for being Ferrari’s team principal.
Speculation has been rampant surrounding Fred Vasseur’s tole as Ferrari team principal, with the situation fuelled further by rumours linking former Red Bull boss Christian Horner to a management role at the Italian outfit.
Ferrari has been attempting to control the damage by publicly backing Vasseur as its team principal in an unusual press call ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, while the Frenchman has also been staunchly defended by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Villeneuve weighed into the debate by sharing his view on the situation at Ferrari during Sky Sports F1’s coverage of Friday practice at Sepang.
"The team principal is never the scapegoat, he's the top of the organisation. When things go well, he looks great, when things don't go well, he's the one who takes the beating,” Villeneuve said.
"It’s normal and anyone who goes to Ferrari, not only a team principal, knows that that's the price to pay. It comes with a heavy baggage of, "You're fantastic when you perform, but two or three bad races, and the whole world is against you," at least in the media.
“It's been like that forever. It's been like that for other team principals, drivers, engineers, everyone. That's just the price to pay for being in the greatest team of all time.”
Asked if he thinks Vasseur deserves more time in his role, Villeneuve replied: “I don't know. Did the other ones deserve more time? He's had more time than a lot of other ones already.
“I think the big difference now is he's protected by the drivers as well, which is a good thing.”
Villeneuve also pointed out a big problem he reckons is hampering Ferrari in its so far failed attempt to end a near-two-decade wait to win F1 world titles.
“If you look at other teams like [Mercedes] and Toto [Wolff], he makes all the decisions. Nobody's above him. And he's also an owner of the team like teams used to be in the past,” the Canadian explained.
“You don't have that at Ferrari. Vasseur doesn't have full control about what's going on or decision-making.”
Villeneuve also stressed that leadership by committee can never work in F1.
“Committee doesn't work. It's too slow,” he added. “In F1, you need to be reactive, you have to be quick.”
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