Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has been hospitalised and will miss qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.
The 58-year-old Frenchman was present trackside on Friday – when his drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc earned one-two finishes in both practice sessions – and participated in media duties.
However, the team released a statement on Saturday morning to say that “following some medical checks,” Vasseur will remain under observation at a medical facility. No specific medical reason was disclosed.
“Fred Vasseur will not be present at the circuit today. Following some medical checks, Fred will remain under observation at a local medical facility,” said Ferrari.
“No further medical information will be provided. We wish Fred a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back at the track soon.”
Speaking on Friday, the French executive Vasseur (who has been Ferrari’s F1 team boss since 2023) played down expectations of a pole position despite the Scuderia’s strong showing in practice.
“We have to do a job. It’s a very long way from Friday to qualifying and the race,” said Vasseur.
“The most difficult [thing] is you have to anticipate the evolution of the track, the grip. You always have to be one session ahead and this is a challenge for the teams and drivers.
“We will see on Saturday afternoon the real pace.”
Qualifying, one of the most important of the season given the usually processional nature of Sunday’s race, is at 3pm BST on Saturday afternoon.
Hamilton, who has not won in Ferrari red yet, finished in top spot in the second practice session on Friday.
“It’s been a positive day overall and the car felt quite good right from the first laps,” said Hamilton.
“The team did a solid job with the changes we made between the two sessions and we were able to work through our programme without any major issues.
“Monaco is always a very different challenge, with the bumps and the close proximity of the barriers, so it’s not easy to find the right balance and put everything together. There is still performance to be found and tonight we’ll focus on the details, because the margins are very small here and there’s plenty of work to do ahead of qualifying.”
