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Christian Horner is a smart and powerful man, but more importantly, he knows how to play the game and get things done in Formula 1. After last week’s comments—in which he said he wasn’t interested in a lowly team principal job without an ownership stake, unless it was Ferrari—rumors are swirling about the former Red Bull boss heading to Maranello.
But could Horner save Ferrari and bring the Scuderia back to its winning ways? Or, after nearly two mediocre decades and a revolving door of team principals and talented title-winning drivers coming and going, is the rot within Ferrari just too deep for one man—or two (Lewis Hamilton)—to cure?
Fred Vasseur has done a respectable job turning many aspects of the Scuderia around, and he’ll always be remembered for luring a seven-time champion away from one of the most dominant teams in modern F1 to one that hadn’t given its driver a title since 2007. That said, even with his decades of experience in F1 and its feeder series, Vasseur has failed to bring Ferrari back to its glory days. If you were expecting a return to the Michael Schumacher era when Hamilton was confirmed—and it would’ve been understandable—boy, have you been disappointed.
And at the end of the day, it’s not Vasseur’s fault; at least not all of it. It’s much deeper than that. It wasn’t only Jean Todt who turned things around in the late ’90s; it wasn’t just Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, Gino Rosato, Stefano Domenicali, Rubens Barrichello, or Schumacher. It was a collective effort under the watchful (and very intimidating) eye of Luca di Montezemolo. The stories I’ve heard from his subordinates at the time are just fascinating, and they leave your jaw on the floor. Quite the management style back then.
Patrick Hertzog and Ullstein Bild via Getty
“The sport is my life, it’s my business,” Vasseur told Sky Sports. “I’m trying to do my best. For sure, I’m there to do my job. I have the best job in the world. It is like it is. We still have seven races to go, and we will push to the last corner.”
Maybe Vasseur is feeling the pressure; maybe he’s not too concerned with it after signing a multi-year contract extension last year. If di Montezemolo or even the infamous Sergio Marchionne were around, I think we’d hear and see a little more urgency from Vasseur and the squad as a whole. The Agnelli-appointed John Elkann and current Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna seem too focused on the road-car side of the business to realize Hamilton may follow the path of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. When was the last time either of them was on the pit wall, keeping a close eye on F1 operations?
Can Horner bring Ferrari back to its glory days? Your guess is as good as mine.
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As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive’s short- and long-term coverage.