Jerome d’Ambrosio played down the idea of debuting as a team principal at the Austrian Grand Prix.

With Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur not present on Grand Prix Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, deputy principal Jerome d’Ambrosio stepped up to the plate, in what proved a decent race weekend for the Scuderia.

Jerome d’Ambrosio ‘aligned’ with Fred Vasseur at Ferrari

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Ahead of the race in Austria, Ferrari confirmed that Vasseur would not be present and had gone home, explaining the reasoning.

Their statement read: “Fred will not be at the track today, because he has had to return home for personal reasons.

“Deputy team principal, Jerome d’Ambrosio, will stand in for him.”

Ferrari brought an upgraded SF-25 to the Red Bull Ring and its first audition was positive, as Charles Leclerc made the front row before crossing the line P3 a day later, his fourth podium of the season. Lewis Hamilton was a comfortable P4.

D’Ambrosio was pleased with how the race went, and felt the de facto team principal status was a natural one to take on. After all, he is in contact with Vasseur “20 times a day”.

“I don’t think I debuted as a team principal today,” d’Ambrosio told the media, including PlanetF1.com, following the Austrian Grand Prix.

“I did my role as deputy, and as part of it, if something like that happens, and Fred had to leave, then I stepped in.

“I think today went well, because we have a strong team. We have good people in the background. We have a strong engineering team, a strong mechanics team. Everyone did a great job. So for me, it was pretty straightforward from that perspective.

“Now, at the factory, at the races, I speak to Fred 20 times a day. We’re aligned. So it’s not something that… I didn’t feel like I was dropped into something like a fish out of water.

“[I have] been to many races this year. I’m on the pit wall with the team. So in the end, we didn’t deviate too much from what we do.”

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D’Ambrosio would have already been a familiar name to many F1 fans. He made 20 grand prix starts across Marussia and Lotus stints, ahead of becoming Mercedes’ driver development director.

He emerged as a key ally for Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, and served as de facto Mercedes principal for the 2023 Japanese and Qatar GPs after Wolff underwent knee surgery.

D’Ambrosio would move to Ferrari in 2024 as deputy team principal and boss of their driver academy.

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