BUDAPEST: Ferrari handed team principal Fred Vasseur a new contract on Thursday in a sign of “trust in Fred’s leadership” following speculation about his future, with the Italian team yet to win a Formula 1 race in 2025.
In an announcement ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari said the new deal was a “multiple-year contract,” without giving further details. Lewis Hamilton gave Vasseur his backing last month after reports in Italian media suggested his job could be in question.
Ferrari last won a race in October and neither Hamilton nor Charles Leclerc has consistently been able to challenge the leading McLaren drivers.
“Today we want to recognize what has been built and commit to what still needs to be achieved,” Ferrari chief executive Benedetto Vigna said in a statement.
“It reflects our trust in Fred’s leadership — a trust rooted in shared ambition, mutual expectations and clear responsibility. We move forward with determination and focus, united in our pursuit of the level of performance Ferrari has to aim for.”
Vasseur joined Ferrari as team principal at the start of 2023. He was Hamilton’s team boss in junior series in the mid-2000s and played a role in convincing the seven-time champion to leave Mercedes for Ferrari for 2025 in a move which shook up F1. Vasseur also previously worked with Renault and Sauber in F1.
Hamilton, who hasn’t finished on the podium in a Grand Prix race since joining the Italian team, has been holding meetings with senior executives to push for improvements and a voice in developing the team’s car for 2026.
Ferrari renews team principal Fred Vasseur’s contract despite a difficult F1 season
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Ferrari renews team principal Fred Vasseur’s contract despite a difficult F1 season
- Lewis Hamilton gave Vasseur his backing last month after reports in Italian media suggested his job could be in question
- Ferrari last won a race in October and neither Hamilton nor Charles Leclerc has consistently been able to challenge the leading McLaren drivers
Siniakova ends Andreeva Indian Wells defense in third round
- Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Unseeded Katerina Siniakova ended a frustrated Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells title defense on Monday, rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the eighth-ranked Russian.
The 18-year-old Andreeva had opened her repeat bid with an imperious 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Solana Sierra.
But she was in trouble early and often against 44th-ranked Siniakova in a rollercoaster contest that featured seven service breaks for each player and 43 break chances between them.
When she sailed a swinging volley long to surrender the second set, Andreeva threw her racquet in disgust.
She regrouped to break Siniakova for a 3-2 lead in the third, but Siniakova won the next four games.
The Czech saved a pair of break points in the final game before sealing the match with a shot that struck the net cord and dribbled over as Andreeva could only watch, disappointment sparking another outburst from the Russian as she departed the court.
Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals.
In other early matches, fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula shook off a slow start to beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Pegula, coming off her fourth career WTA 1000 title at Dubai last month, fired 11 aces with just one double fault as she rallied for the win.
“I think today I had to kind of snap myself back and kind of lock in to not let that get away from me,” said Pegula, who said she was in danger of letting negativity and frustration get the better of her.
“I didn’t think I was playing bad. It was just letting a couple chances, couple breaks here and there (get away), maybe a couple shots that I could have been more aggressive on.”
Later on Stadium Court, world number two Iga Swiatek took on Greece’s Maria Sakkari — the woman she beat in the Indian Wells finals in 2022 and 2024.
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who lifted the Indian wells Trophy in 2023, played Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final match of the night.
