The Hamilton case
In a long interview with La Stampa, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur also addressed the difficult situation of Lewis Hamilton. The 40-year-old British champion arrived in Maranello surrounded by high expectations, but so far the on-track results have not materialized, and more and more frequently he has not hidden his disappointment with his performance in front of the media.
Lewis Hamilton is missing the details. We’re talking about hundredths of a second, which in such a balanced F1 can make the difference between a front row and a second row, between a good weekend and a less good one. But they remain details: understanding the car, the setup, communication. That’s normal when you change teams,” explained Fred Vasseur, who also commented on the British champion’s state of mind: “It’s understandable. It’s a bit like Charles Leclerc’s frustration in Monaco: drivers are competitive, they dedicate all their energy to the project and I understand if they feel sad or angry when things don’t go right—it would be wrong if they didn’t.”
Lewis, team radio, and how to improve
Frederic Vasseur has a clear path forward for Hamilton to get out of this situation: “It’s about continuing to work and push together. Honestly, the collaboration is good. You learn more from difficult moments, and we come back stronger from them. In Spain, both cars had a problem in the final stint, and Lewis’s performance suffered from it. Looking back at Monaco, his second row would have allowed us to try a different strategy, but then came the penalty.”
Referring to Monaco, the misunderstanding with race engineer Riccardo Adami led to the penalty: “A misunderstanding due to a GPS issue, we lost Verstappen’s signal,” the team principal noted, who also commented on Hamilton’s team radios: “The first question to ask is where can we improve and what Lewis expects in terms of information. Team radios don’t scare me. Certain reactions are understandable when you’re going 300 km/h between the walls—what matters is that the dialogue is constructive before and after. I assure you there’s no war.” And no one is angry with the driver, as Lewis Hamilton asked on the team radio in Monaco: “No one. We were all upset for different reasons: on his side of the garage for the penalty, on Charles’s side for the narrowly missed pole.”
Charles Leclerc at his best
Speaking about drivers, Fred Vasseur also had a word for Charles Leclerc: “Are we seeing the best Leclerc ever? I’d say yes, he’s doing a good job. Compared to the past, he’s made great progress in terms of being clear about what he wants, he’s more direct in asking the engineers for what he needs.” However, the French manager does not want to define Charles Leclerc as the team leader: “We have two top drivers, there’s no need for a leader. I think if Leclerc has taken a step forward, it’s also because Lewis has pushed him to do so. On the other hand, Charles is helping his teammate understand the team and the car. They work well together; I don’t ask them to be best friends.”
More on Charles Leclerc: “He’s in love with Ferrari. His career has had one color since the academy and his early days in GP3. He’s tied to the company and the team. He’s not looking around for a better seat but is part of the project, part of this family. And I respect him a lot for that.”
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