Frederic Vasseur says Christian Horner’s public search for a Formula 1 job is costing Ferrari its focus, telling reporters in Baku that “Mr Horner is looking for a job – that everybody knows – everywhere” after a race in which Charles Leclerc recovered from 16th on the grid to finish fourth and Lewis Hamilton came home sixth.
The Ferrari team principal was asked repeatedly about his own position at Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix following an interview Horner gave to the Times, in which the former Red Bull boss named Ferrari as the only team he would return to without an ownership stake. “Would I consider Ferrari?” Horner said. “I mean, Ferrari is the biggest brand in Formula 1. It’s the dream. And arguably it’s the sleeping giant of Formula 1.”
‘We are not working in the perfect serenity’
Vasseur, in his fourth season in charge at Maranello, made no attempt to hide his irritation at the volume of questions the Horner story has generated.
“Ah, we are not working in the perfect serenity,” he said. “For me firstly, but for everybody in the team, for the media, for 50% of the questions [to be] about this, it’s a bit of a frustrating situation. But it is what it is, it’s not in my hands. Mr Horner is looking for a job – that everybody knows – everywhere.”
Asked whether the remark about Horner was a joke, Vasseur replied that he was “very serious”. He added that the speculation had become inescapable: “Each interview, 25 times a day, we are coming back to this.”
The Frenchman insisted he has no intention of stepping back, describing the Ferrari role as “the best job in the world” and pledging to “push until the last corner” of a campaign with seven rounds remaining. Hamilton, asked in Baku whether he retained confidence in Ferrari’s direction under Vasseur, answered with a flat “yes”.
A results record that keeps the door ajar
The awkwardness is that Ferrari’s season does not give Vasseur an obvious shield. The SF-26 has won twice – Hamilton in Barcelona, Leclerc at Silverstone – and collected nine podiums, but the team has not finished on the rostrum in five races and its early challenge to Mercedes has evaporated.
- Constructors’ championship: Mercedes 538, Ferrari 378, McLaren 306, Red Bull 263
- Drivers’ championship: Kimi Antonelli 302, George Russell 236, Hamilton 199, Lando Norris 186, Leclerc 179
- Ferrari’s last constructors’ title: 2008. Last drivers’ title: Kimi Raikkonen, 2007
“We are fighting for P2 in the championship,” Vasseur said – an accurate description of the job in hand, and a reminder of how far the ambition has been trimmed since the winter, when a new technical ruleset was widely expected to reset the order in Ferrari’s favour.
This is not the first time Vasseur has been written out of Maranello. He signed a multi-year extension in the summer of 2025 after a similar wave of speculation, and chairman John Elkann publicly defended him that October when Horner’s name first began circulating. Elkann had approached Horner about the job in 2022, before appointing Vasseur in January 2023 – the fifth man to hold the post in nine years, a churn rate that is itself part of the story every time a rumour starts.
What it means for the run-in
Horner has been out of the sport since Red Bull removed him in July 2025 after two decades in which he won eight constructors’ titles and eight drivers’ championships. His Times interview was given while promoting a forthcoming book, and people close to him have characterised it as a publicity exercise rather than a pitch. That distinction matters less inside Ferrari than the effect: a team fighting to hold second place is answering questions about its next team principal rather than its car.
Horner’s stated flexibility on equity is the genuinely new element. He has previously said any comeback would require a meaningful shareholding – “I’ve been a hired hand. I did 21 years sitting on the pit wall. I don’t need to go back to that” – and Ferrari, tightly controlled by Elkann and chief executive Benedetto Vigna, was never going to offer one. By ruling out the stake for this job alone, Horner has removed the obstacle that made the link easy to dismiss.
Ferrari race next at Sepang, where the Malaysian Grand Prix returns for the first time since 2017. A podium there would quieten little; the calculation at Maranello has rarely been about a single weekend. But with Leclerc contracted to 2028 and Hamilton committed for 2027, the drivers are staying. The question Vasseur cannot answer, and is tired of being asked, is whether he is.
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781 words. Facts verified against Sky Sports, ESPN, The Race, GPFans and RacingNews365 before drafting — including the Baku classification (Russell won by 0.196s from Verstappen, Leclerc 4th, Hamilton 6th), post-race standings, and both sets of verbatim quotes.
Sources: [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/13592354/ferrari-boss-frederic-vasseur-says-christian-horner-looking-for-a-job-adding-to-frustrating-speculation-around-f1-team), [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/50011978/fred-vasseur-vents-frustration-talk-future-ferrari-not-my-hands), [The Race — Vasseur](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mr-horner-looking-for-a-job-vasseur-laments-ferrari-distractions/), [The Race — background](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/christian-horner-to-ferrari-f1-rumours-whats-really-going-on/), [Sky Sports — Horner](https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/13591649/christian-horner-dream-ferrari-role-is-only-f1-job-that-could-tempt-former-red-bull-boss-back-to-pit-wall-without-ownership-stake), [GPFans classification](https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/1090761/f1-azerbaijan-grand-prix-2026-results-final-classification-all-penalties-applied-baku/), [Yahoo standings](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/f1-standings-2026-azerbaijan-grand-033253722.html)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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