Fred Vasseur claims 'Ferrari would have won F1 title' if FIA had acted earlier

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Fred Vasseur claims 'Ferrari would have won F1 title' if FIA had acted earlier

Ferrari haven't been victorious in an F1 championship since 2008

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Thursday 12 March 2026 09:45

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has pointed the finger at the FIA for hampering the Scuderia's chances of bringing home their first F1 championship since 2008.

In F1, races and even championships are often won by the finest of margins, something that Vasseur appears to be suggesting in a recent interview where he accused the FIA of not acting quickly enough to ban a previous trick used by McLaren.

Despite welcoming seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to their ranks last season, Ferrari came away with their worst championship result since finishing a lowly P6 in the 2020 constructors' standings.

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Having come off the back of a 2024 campaign where they finished runners-up to the papaya F1 squad, their fourth-place finish in the 2025 team standings went down like a lead balloon, especially considering Vasseur and his driver duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had come so close to taking home the team title in 2024.

So what stopped them? According to Vasseur, potentially the FIA.

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Did lack of FIA action stop Ferrari's first win since 2008?

Last year, McLaren were the clear frontrunners for the constructors' championship from the get go and even managed to take home the title at the Singapore GP with six rounds to spare.

The previous team title victory did not come so easily however as McLaren faced competition from the Scuderia who had put in a season of consistent points-scoring finishes thanks to Leclerc and Sainz.

In fact, the Spaniard is still Ferrari's last F1 race winner after neither Leclerc or new team-mate Hamilton managed to drag their SF-25 to P1 in a single grand prix last season.

But McLaren were hit with controversy in 2024 over the creation of their 'mini-DRS' feature, which raised questions from their rivals regarding the FIA's rules around rear wing flexibility, something which Vasseur has now implied prevented Ferrari from taking home their first title win in 16 years.

Speaking to L'Equipe ahead of the first race of 2026, Vasseur was asked just how important the SF-26 was for Ferrari and whether it could present another chance for the Scuderia to win the title.

In response, the Ferrari team principal said: “Yes and no, because it's a chance for everyone.

"And then, everyone has forgotten that we came very close to winning the constructors' championship in 2024 (second behind McLaren by 14 points).

"I would remind you that it all came down to the last race in Abu Dhabi. And if the mini DRS had been banned earlier, perhaps we would have won."

No official action was taken by F1's governing body to ban the controversial rear wing trick, but prior to the 2024 US GP, all 10 teams were issued a note which stated the FIA were not comfortable with the flexing of rear wings helping to open slot gaps (the distance between the rear wing flap and the main plane) thus providing teams with a boost in straight-line speed.

Even though McLaren’s rear wing passed the FIA’s static load test, the governing body were under increasing pressure from their rivals to enforce a change, with the FIA eventually declaring that the boundaries of the component’s flexibility had been stretched too far, with McLaren agreeing to change it.

Then, ahead of the 2025 season, the wording of the rules was changed with the aim of removing any grey areas open for interpretation in relation to the slot gap.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here she realised her background in journalism and love of motorsport could be combined, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work more closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan which she hopes to build on.

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Ferrari FIA Fred Vasseur