Former Ferrari driver Ivan Capelli has suggested Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff was behind the leak which prompted an early announcement of Lewis Hamilton's move to the Scuderia.
The seven-time F1 Drivers' champion will make the switch to Maranello from next season, bringing an end to his stint with Mercedes during which he picked up six of his titles.
But with the announcement coming before the car launches for the upcoming season, the timing of the news shocked everyone.
Asked if this was Ferrari's own strategy, Capelli told Gazzetta dello Sport: "No. It was Toto Wolff who let this news out, to give Hamilton and Ferrari a chop.
"In doing so, he ensured that Ferrari did not come to deliver the news itself during the season."
Ferrari enters the new season off the back of a positive pre-season test in Bahrain, hoping it will be able to throw down a challenge to Red Bull.
On whether the Scuderia can win this term, Capelli insisted: "It can, although I think Vasseur is first of all trying to reverse the course of the last few years in which we always heard at the end of the season that the car was no longer modifiable, that we might as well concentrate on the next season's car.
"Here, I think his first goal is to have a car that is still developable after the middle of the championship, to make it live longer, looking forward to 2025."
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