Lewis Hamilton has reiterated his full support for Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur and said critics should "point fingers somewhere else," suggesting those higher up in the team's hierarchy must also take responsibility for its struggles.
Vasseur's job has come under increasing scrutiny over the past month, with reports last week linking ex-Red Bull boss Christian Horner to replace him.
The speculation grew so much Ferrari felt the need this week to clarify that Ferrari's corporate leadership has "full confidence" in Vasseur, albeit via a press conference with the team's head of communications and not through a statement from either company CEO Benedetto Vigna or chairman John Elkann.
"Ultimately, it's not a one-man operation," Hamilton said in a passionate defence of his team boss to TV in Malaysia on Thursday. "If you want to point fingers, point them somewhere else. There are lot of people above that also are a part of it.
"So if you want to take something from this message: Fred's in his position, he's not going anywhere and I'm here to stay with him. And I still believe fully in where we're going."
Speaking to the written media afterwards, Hamilton reiterated: "I think Fred has the full backing.
"There often seems to be a lot of focus on one individual in one role here. And you can see that, obviously, they've switched out lots of different people in Fred's role. But Fred is a fantastic leader.
"He really is the guy to take his team in the right direction. However, there is a structure that's been there for some time. Whether or not that needs looking at moving forward, there are obviously also people above Fred, and it's not about one person.
"Fred has led the team to ... He's helped make changes in this past year, he's helped us get to the second in the constructors' championship. That's a huge step from last year."
Hamilton was then asked if one of the issues Ferrari has is that Vasseur has no financial stake in the race team, unlike his former boss Toto Wolff, who oversees all facets of the Mercedes F1 team.
In reply to whether Ferrari could benefit with a similar structure to Mercedes, Hamilton said: "There are changes that I would make, but I'm not going to talk about what those are. Toto's in a different position to Fred. The structure's a lot different. That's all I can say."
Ferrari has always been subjected to intense scrutiny, attention which has likely only increased the longer the team's title drought has gone on -- the team's last constructors' title was 2008, with its last drivers' title in 2007.
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Hamilton said the recent reporting about the state of the internals of the team have been wide of the market.
"For me, it's frustrating to see all the negativity. Because you see other people making mistakes, and they don't normally say too much about them," he said.
"We either make the same mistake, or are not perfect and and it's ten times worse for some reason for Ferrari, but that's also to be expected. Given that it's the best brand here, it's the most iconic by far. For me, I don't read a lot, so that has zero effect on me. But of course, when I come into the room and see, it definitely affects individuals on the team.
"Because every weekend they try and show up and do the best job they can, and they don't get it right all the time. Families are messaging you for all the negative things that they're reading when the people back at the factory are reading all those things, even though they're giving their all. It's almost like sometimes you feel like there's nothing you can do right, even when you're giving your all.
"For me, the message is to not read any of the stuff that's being written. Because the fact is, nobody that's writing any of the stuff has actually any clue what they're talking about, because they're not in the team.
"They don't know what's happening behind closed doors. They don't know how hard everybody's working. It's all down to assumptions and opinions."
Vasseur and Hamilton worked together back in Formula 2 before being reunited at Ferrari.
"Fred's been fantastic working with me and I think our relationship as a whole -- even with our bosses -- is in a better place than it ever was," he added to television.
"Fred's made a lot of changes I've asked for already. I think it's not an easy time for Fred so I think it's good that the team came out with that earlier this week. I've also let him know I support him 100%.
"I wouldn't be here without Fred. Swapping him out ... it won't change how the team moves forwards. It would be detrimental to it."
