Sebastian Vettel has thrown his support behind Maurizio Arrivabene after speculation in Italy suggested the Ferrari team boss could be fired at the end of the season.
Italian publication Autosprint claimed Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne could replace Arrivabene as team principal with current technical director James Allison.
Speculation at this weekend's Spanish GP has also suggested Ferrari could be interested in recruiting Toro Rosso's highly-rated technical boss James Key or Mercedes' Aldo Costa, who worked for the Scuderia from 1995 to 2011.
Arrivabene, a long-time commercial boss at Ferrari sponsor Philip Morris, was hired by Marchionne amid a senior management purge at the end of 2014 and oversaw their return to race-winning form last season.
And Vettel has criticised the suggestion the 59-year-old's position could now be under threat.
"He's the boss and is doing a very good job," the German said after Friday practice at Barcelona, where Ferrari ran Mercedes close.
"He is leading the team. He's accessible for all the people, he spends a lot of time with the team, not just here but also [at Ferrari's factory in] Maranello.
"I know there has been some rumours and some bull**** lately, but we're very, very happy that he's with us and not with somebody else."
With Ferrari yet to beat Mercedes in 2016, pressure has been growing on F1's most successful team.
Marchionne told Sky F1 at last month's Chinese GP the "clock is on" and earlier this week was quoted as saying "I expect us to win shortly - starting with Spain".
Mercedes are currently on a run of 10 consecutive race wins and the reigning champions will tie McLaren's all-time F1 record with an 11th consecutive triumph in Spain. Ferrari have not beaten their rivals since last September's Singapore GP and their challenge at the start of this season has been hindered by reliability problems and on-track incidents.
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But encouragingly for Ferrari's prospects at Barcelona, the team split the Mercedes' in Friday practice - leaving Vettel optimistic they can give Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton more of a challenge this weekend.
"I don't think it's ever too soon to start winning!" he said in reference to Marchionne's pre-race remarks. "We all know where we want to go, we want to win - that's why we're here. I'm not here to come second.
"But equally we know that our opposition at this stage is very strong. But this weekend coming should be a challenge for them."
Ferrari have gone eight years without winning either world title and Marchionne has made clear only a championship victory will suffice in 2016.
The Italian-Canadian's recent comments suggest he is already running out of patience, but Vettel said the Ferrari president's desire for success should be viewed as a positive, rather than a negative.
"First of all it's great to see that our president cares," the German said. "He's really living with the team, he wants to help us where he can, and of course he's upset or disappointed as much as we are when something happens that's out of your hands and we are not finishing the race at all, or we are not finishing where we could have finished.
"So I see more the positives, rather than the pressure. It's good to have him behind us. Obviously I and the team speak to him more than the press, so this makes me actually quite confident that bit-by-bit things are going the right way.
"But, of course, we set out the target to win this year, we haven't achieved that yet, so you have a fair point if you want to criticise us. Whatever happened lies behind us, we look ahead."
Watch the Spanish GP live on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up underway at 11.30am. Or watch the race without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV.