Benedetto Vigna

He's not making a three-row SUV with an HD motor in it, but he did put a stick shift on a 12-cylinder, which is quite cool.

So I'll talk to Benedetto Vigna about that on, I believe, Friday the 13th, November the 13th.

And I'm really looking forward to a conversation with Duncan Aldred, the U.S. or North America president of General Motors, To him, I can put these questions because how fantabulous would it be to have an HD Suburban? It's a product that used to exist and I think still could.

That does it for this edition of Hot Pursuit.

Um, frankly, [laughs] build around Max Verstappen, right? And, and that's the way that things are, and that's working for Red Bull.

You look at Ferrari, it, it's a very different structure, right? I mean, every- when I do videos and I talk about Ferrari and I have to, I feel like I have to say all the names, and I'm like, "There's so many names." You've got Fred, and then you've got Vigna, he's the CEO.

You've got Elkann who's the chairman.

So it's like, what's that about? What is exactly does he do? Why he has a relationship with Lewis? Vigna isn't really so keen about that, but he likes the Sir maybe, or maybe he doesn't, or maybe he prefers Coletta.

And like all these mo- bullshit moving parts-

[laughs]

Um, and Leclerc's kind of the golden boy, right? As much as Hamilton is beating him this season and has been, I think, better overall, and is the key marketing piece, um, if Leclerc starts to say, "You know what? We need this, and, and I'm gonna be in Hamilton's court," as much as they're great rivals on track, if they can agree off the track about the direction Ferrari needs to take, that might be enough.

I still don't think it involves Horner because I just...

Take the Ferrari case from July twenty twenty-four.

An executive received WhatsApp messages and then a phone call from a very convincing deepfake of CEO Benedetto Vigna.

The fake CEO was asking about a confidential acquisition.

A classic setup.

So, so I, I think the way that Ferrari's reacted to it has just been kind of symptomatic of where it's been as a team for the last few races and the wider narrative around with Fred Vasseur under pressure, speculation that he's gonna be phased out at the end of the year.

Ferrari then rounding on that speculation with, you know, bizarre tactics to kind of give Fred the backing, but doing it bizarrely late and not doing it through, uh, John Elkann or Benedetto Vigna actually speaking themselves about it.

So it's all been a bit, a bit weird, and so Fred had the air of someone who just was fed up that kind of the spotlight's being put on them unfairly, is how I, I, I would interpret it, and the reason for that was because for Ferrari, it seemed so simple and straightforward.

It wa- it wa...

But where I went to play paddle yesterday, Fred Vasseur was playing, and he looked relaxed and free.

from from any sort of of pressure has it eased the pressure at all because I think Benedetto Vigna the the CEO of Ferrari was on site in Malaysia and probably keeping an eye actually on on on on what's going on on the track and I should imagine after they made the decision to go on to the slicks he's thinking oh god and and probably might be thinking oh god what's going on here but His drivers did him proud considering they started on the wrong tyre, didn't they?

It's been a tough time, I think, for Fred Vasseur and the added pressure that's sort of been mounting on him besides some personal stuff going on.

I think this is why the drivers also made sure that they came out and supported him.

Uh, the comments came after the latest round of speculation following comments from Red Bull, former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who said Ferrari was his only F1 operation that he'd go to without an ownership stake.

Ferrari management, led by communications chief Maria Conti, said its position had not shifted around support for Vasseur, and made clear the message reflected the view of chairman John Elkann and chief executive Benedetto Vigna.

Based on Friday...

Uh, sorry, asked on Friday why such a public show of support had been required, Vasseur said the con- constant questions had become a distraction.