BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Charles Leclerc said it was important for Ferrari to silence rumours around Fred Vasseur's future at the team by announcing a contract extension for the team principal on Thursday.
Ferrari confirmed Vasseur would remain at the team on a multi-year deal ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, putting an end to speculation about the security of his position at the team beyond the end of the season.
Leclerc, who was already at the team when Vasseur joined at the end of 2022, said he never doubted Vasseur was the right person for Ferrari's top job.
"I'm really, really happy," he said of the news. "It's not that it's coming as a surprise, but I'm really happy.
"Especially in the past month, there were quite a few rumours, like it's always the case around the team. To finally have the official news out is important and I'm really happy.
"Without going into comparing the different eras, Fred has an incredible vision. What's very difficult within Ferrari is the emotion is very much part of the daily job because Italian people in general, and that's what makes Ferrari so special, are extremely passionate about Ferrari.
"Fred really knows how to leave his emotions aside and have a clear vision of where we are at no matter how much noise there is around the team. This is very, very important. Apart from that, he's got many more qualities. One of them is also to extract the maximum out of every single person at the factory and this, when you put everything together, it makes a big difference."
Lewis Hamilton, who joined Ferrari at the start of the year after Vasseur tempted him away from Mercedes, said he continued to back the Frenchman.
"There's nothing else to add, I told you before that it was the right choice," he said. "Fred signed me here and we wanted to work together."
Hamilton added: "I'm still learning -- trying to learn -- the way that Fred likes to work, but I have absolute confidence in Fred, as I've always said."
Leclerc said one of Vasseur's biggest strengths has been his emotional stability during the team's ups and downs.
"He definitely changed the way we are working on different things," he said. "Where Fred made the biggest difference is his vision, his overall vision. This, he embedded it into the team and that's very important.
"I feel that the beauty of Ferrari is the fact that emotionally it's always intense, but it can also harm us in some ways, especially when tougher times arrive.
Fred has always had very cold blood in those moments and helped the team to be a little bit more, lucid. And that's the biggest thing Fred has brought to the team."