AUSTIN, Texas — Charles Leclerc hopes his podium at the U.S. Grand Prix will silence speculation around the future of Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur.
Ferrari has endured a disappointing season with no grands prix victories and just six podiums from 19 races this year.
The Austin race weekend got underway amid rumours Vasseur could be replaced by former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner next year, something Lewis Hamilton labelled “a distraction” on Thursday.
Speaking in Washington D.C. on Friday, Ferrari CEO John Elkann felt the need to reiterate his support for his team principal despite signing Vasseur to a new contract less than three months ago.
Speaking on Sunday evening, Leclerc said Ferrari could be proud that it secured a podium amid the rumours and speculation.
“The second part of the season hasn’t been easy, with completely unfounded noise and rumours around the team,” he said. “I think to demonstrate that in those kinds of situations, we can stay focused on the job and be rewarded with a podium is a really nice feeling.
“I’m very happy. I’m very happy because obviously we had the gearbox problem [during Friday practice], which cost us a little bit of laps, which then meant we were a little bit on the back foot trying to recover in the sprint qualifying and sprint race.
“And then in qualifying, we did some fine-tuning, we found a lot more performance, and today was a really good race for us.”
Ferrari has not had a winless season since 2021, but despite the boost of the podium on Sunday, Leclerc doubts a victory in the final five races of 2025 is possible.
“I still want to believe we can win a race before the end of the season, but again, I think we need to be realistic in our situation,” he said. “And I don’t think we quite have the car to do so. I think this weekend has been the perfect weekend for the team.
“I’ll be surprised if we can achieve anything better until the end of the year. We’ll take it race by race and see what can be done.”
Similarly, Lewis Hamilton said the performance is “going in the right direction,” but the team needs more consistency.
“I’m definitely feeling better in the car,” Hamilton said. “And I definitely get a deep dive in these next couple of days, try and figure out how we can extract more from the car. Get the car in a slightly better place, but overall, pretty decent. The team did a great job today.”
He added: “We need consistency, if I can finish there, or even get a podium at some point, just finish ahead of the Mercedes, that is our goal. If I can help the team secure second in the constructors’ that would be a good end to the year.”
