Frederic Vasseur insists news that Lewis Hamilton was going to join Ferrari was not leaked from his team and declared he has plugged the gaps that used to exist at Maranello.
It was announced on the evening of February 1 that the seven-time Formula 1 champion will make the move ahead of the 2025 season. And it was only earlier that day that credible reports of the incoming bombshell first emerged.
That in itself is rather remarkable for a Ferrari team famed for its leaks. Over the years information has had a habit of slipping out of Maranello against the company's wishes, but team principal Vasseur is confident that is a thing of the past.
He told Motorsport.com: "We had no leaks - I think it was done by purpose by someone from the UK. I really appreciated that we are a small group, and we worked for months, and we are able to go until the end and had no leakage. It was a good one.
"We had some leakages at the beginning when I joined, even before I joined because I understood in the press that I will go to Ferrari before I started the discussion with Ferrari. In the last six months, you had gossip in the press, but it was gossip and not real leaks from the team."
One such titbit came in the wake of the recent announcement that legendary F1 car designer Adrian Newey will soon leave Red Bull. The 65-year-old is expected to take some time out but the rumour mill suggests he will eventually end up following Hamilton to Italy. And Vasseur used a recent example of Newey being seen at an airport near Ferrari's Maranello base to support his argument that more Ferrari stories these days are based on speculation rather than information coming out of the team.
He said: "There was the story with Newey seen in Bologna because Newey was going to Mugello [to test]. That's not a leak! I don't want to make any judgment on the past, but I can't complain. I had more leaks at Renault, for example. Renault, I was saying something in the debrief, and then it was in that afternoon on the websites."
When Hamilton finally links up with Ferrari, Vasseur expect the Briton to be able to offer more than what your average driver would. He continued: "The input of Lewis or another driver is not just about qualification lap time and so on. It's the finality of the job... We are still a young team. It's not just a matter of age, but it's a matter of experience together, and wins together. So that means that we are quite green, or quite young
"To have someone into the loop with such a big background and such big experience will impact for sure. We have time to discuss this with Lewis and, for me, into the building process of the team - you want to have a long-term view and for the next cycle. I'm not speaking about '24 or '25, it's about cycle and it's where clearly, we have to do steps.
"We made some improvements already I think, compared to 12 months ago, to involve the drivers much earlier into the project and to build up the characteristic of the car with them. I think we are going in the right direction. But for sure Lewis will add value."
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