The Horner-to-Ferrari story has been running for weeks. According to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the name at the top of Ferrari chairman John Elkann’s shortlist to replace Fred Vasseur is somebody who has spent nearly three decades inside Maranello and has already told the board he does not want the job.
That name is Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s Global Head of Endurance and Corse Clienti. Coletta led the 499P Hypercar project to three consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours victories from 2023 to 2025, and to the 2025 Hypercar World Championship title. He has been at Ferrari since 1997.
Elkann and Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna have been trying “for some time” to persuade Coletta to cross to the Formula 1 operation, according to Corriere della Sera reporting relayed on 28 September. Coletta has resisted. He reportedly believes he does not have the right experience for the F1 hot seat, and he has watched six different team principals cycle through Maranello since he arrived, which is not a stack of case studies designed to encourage a career change.
Vasseur admits the strain
Vasseur is still in the job, and after another podium-less weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Charles Leclerc finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton sixth, he made no attempt to hide what the constant succession chatter is doing to the team.
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“It’s not easy to work in this atmosphere and have to answer the same questions 25 times a day, for me and for everyone on the team,” Vasseur told reporters, as reported by thejudge13.
Ferrari sit second in the constructors’ standings, still ahead of McLaren but chasing Mercedes, and holding that runner-up spot is now central to Vasseur’s own case for staying in the role.
Horner names his price, but no contact
Horner has done nothing to lower the temperature. In an interview with The Times published on 25 September, reported by Sky Sports, the former Red Bull team principal named Ferrari as the one team he would return to without an ownership stake.
“At this stage in my life, there’s only one team for which I would accept non-participation in ownership,” Horner said.
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“Ferrari is the biggest brand in Formula 1. It’s the dream. And arguably it’s the sleeping giant of Formula 1.”
Horner said he had spent 21 years as a “hired hand” on the pit wall and had no interest in going back to that unless the badge was red. Ferrari, for now, are not thought to have made contact with him.
Ferrari’s other named internal option is deputy team principal Jerome D’Ambrosio, who works alongside Vasseur. The picture of an internal favorite who does not want the job, an external favorite who is talking through the newspapers, and a deputy in the wings, is the one Coletta himself is reportedly weighing when he considers what happens to Ferrari F1 bosses. Vasseur was in this exact position in the summer of 2025, and that cycle ended with a contract extension announced before the Hungarian Grand Prix.
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