Things are getting properly messy at Ferrari right now. Team principal Frédéric Vasseur is facing mounting criticism from within Maranello as the Scuderia struggles to keep pace with Mercedes in the championship fight. According to Italian journalist Giorgio Terruzzi, the relationship between Vasseur and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna has essentially collapsed, and staff have started calling the team principal "Napoleon" because of his autocratic management style. It's the kind of internal drama that usually signals serious trouble ahead.

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The results on track aren't helping Vasseur's cause. Ferrari's SF-26 showed promise early in the season but has completely failed to close the gap to Mercedes. After the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, Kimi Antonelli's advantage over Lewis Hamilton sits at more than 100 points, and while Ferrari holds second in the constructors' championship, McLaren is breathing down their necks just 52 points back. Mercedes has racked up ten wins already, and their performance advantage is particularly evident on the straights, where Ferrari's power unit is losing roughly six tenths compared to the German team. The poor showings at Monza and Madrid were especially disappointing given Ferrari's expectations for those races.

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Despite Ferrari's reliability being solid this season with only one mechanical retirement, it's clearly not enough to overcome the performance deficit. The team's engine updates under the ADUO regulations haven't delivered the gains they needed. Lewis Hamilton has even been singled out by some voices as acting like a "separate republic" within the team, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.

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Finding a replacement for Vasseur seems complicated too. Antonello Coletta from Ferrari's WEC program lacks F1 team principal experience and apparently isn't interested anyway. Christian Horner's name keeps circulating, though any move there seems unlikely at present. There's also talk that Ferrari pursued Andrea Stella, McLaren's current boss and a former Maranello insider, but Stella decided to stay put at McLaren, a team he's built into a genuine championship contender since 2023. With Vasseur's long-term contract already locked in place, Ferrari faces a demanding close to 2026 and an uncertain preparation for 2027.

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