24/04/2025 07:25
Fred Vasseur insists Ferrari - and Lewis Hamilton - has to "stay
calm" through its turbulent start to the F1 season, maintaining the
"ups and downs" are natural. The 56-year-old was in a jovial mood
following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after Charles Leclerc
delivered the Italian team its first podium finish of the campaign.
Although Hamilton, in the other SF-25, continued to struggle in
Jeddah, starting and finishing seventh, Vasseur did not let that
detract from the result. When asked by RacingNews365 in his
post-race media session why the British driver's performance has
tailed off so dramatically since his sprint victory at the Chinese
Grand Prix, the Ferrari team principal provided context for what
the peaks and troughs look like for the Scuderia - and by
extension, Hamilton. "Dramatically... we did five races so far,"
Vasseur playfully replied. "I know that you want to have the big
headlines," he joked. "But I have to say that this is fucking
bullshit," he added with a wink. Addressing the question in a more
serious manner, the Frenchman said: "At the end of the day, we are
in competition, you have ups and downs. "But when we have ups, we
are not world champions, when we have downs, we are not nowhere.
That is just a competition. "I'm not sure you can draw the same
conclusions with Max [Verstappen], when he was P6 [in Bahrain].
"But it is like it is, the competition is tight when you have 10
cars within a couple of tenths [of a second]. "Have a look at Max.
He won in Japan, then he finished 30 seconds... behind in Bahrain,
and then he finished P2 [in Saudi Arabia], but he was on pole
position." Vasseur implores Ferrari to 'stay calm' Vasseur
reiterated his claim that Ferrari's window of performance means
whilst it is not yet at a championship-fighting level this year,
when the team faces difficulties it is not "nowhere" either. "We
just have to stay calm," he said before joking: "You do whatever
you want for you... "But, at least for us, as a team, we have to
work step by step, and I think it paid off last year... to keep the
same approach. "And I will never be the guy who says, 'We are world
champions' or 'We are nowhere.' "We are a team. We are struggling
some weekends, we have good some weekends. It's just that we have
to improve step by step and just be calm"
