19/08/2025 12:55
Fred Vasseur has conceded that he and Lewis Hamilton
"underestimated the change to a different environment" when the
British driver joined Ferrari. The seven-time F1 drivers'
champion's switch from Mercedes has been anything but smooth
sailing thus far, and his new boss can now recognise how the
Italian team "naively" expected too much from Hamilton. Having
endured an underwhelming first 14 rounds with the Scuderia, the
40-year-old cut a crestfallen figure at the recent Hungarian Grand
Prix, the final round before the summer break. His P12 in
qualifying at the Hungaroring, where he is usually so imperious,
capped off a torrid period for the 105-time grand prix winner,
having been roundly beaten by Charles Leclerc over the first part
of the season. To make matters worse, his new Ferrari secured pole
position on the outskirts of Budapest. Hamilton branded himself
"absolutely useless" and suggested the Prancing Horse needed to
"change drivers" to improve results. However, Vasseur has defended
him, explaining that he delta between his two drivers was
significantly smaller than it immediately appeared. "Often it's
down to circumstances, and Lewis has been on the unlucky side more
often than not recently," the Frenchman told Auto, Motor und Sport
. "In Budapest, he was ahead of Charles in Q1 and was only a tenth
slower in Q2. He was 15 thousandths short of advancing. In the end,
one is first and the other is twelfth. "Of course, that looks
silly. But it wasn't far off, and we would have ended up in
eleventh and twelfth place with our two drivers." A bigger task
than anticipated Although the 56-year-old did acknowledge that,
with hindsight, Hamilton's move to the Maranello-based squad was
more upheaval and a bigger transition than first appreciated.
"Looking back, I have to admit that we, by which I mean Lewis and
I, underestimated the change to a different environment," Vasseur
explained. "He had been with the same team for 18 years, if I can
call McLaren and Mercedes home. It was an English team, and the
engine environment always remained the same. "There is a bigger
difference between Ferrari and Mercedes than between Mercedes and
McLaren." He contrasted Hamilton's task against that of his former
driver, Carlos Sainz, admitting it was naive to think the former
would have "everything under control" having not moved teams in so
long, a significant departure from the relative routine of the
latter. "When Lewis arrived at Ferrari, we naively thought that he
would have everything under control," Vasseur added. "He is not
like Carlos Sainz, who changes teams every few years and is
familiar with the process." Nonetheless, the Ferrari team principal
was keen to stress that since the round in Montreal, four rounds
ago, Hamilton has been moving in the right direction. "It took
Lewis four to five races to get the situation under control," he
stated before concluding, "Since the Canadian Grand Prix, he has
actually been on track."
