Fred Vasseur, the Team Principal of Ferrari, broke down the 2025 Azerbaijan GP race for the team. He mentioning an engine issue for Charles Leclerc and a crucial “misjudgement” from Lewis Hamilton regarding the team orders. However, he highlighted that the team’s struggles stemmed primarily from a compromised qualifying session, with Hamilton out in Q2 and Leclerc crashing in Q3.
Team orders and engine troubles
Ferrari made the strategic call to swap the positions of its drivers during the 2025 Azerbaijan GP. Vasseur explained it was quite straightforward given the circumstances. He noted that Leclerc was battling an engine recovery issue, making it easier to give Hamilton a clear advantage to push forward.
When questioned on the decision-making process, Vasseur stated, “I think the situation was clear for us that Lewis had the entire advantage, and we asked Charles to let him go… Charles had an issue with the recovery, and we had to give up on the engine. I think that was the best option for us to do this”
The original plan was for the positions to be reversed later in the race, but the swap back never materialised. Vasseur attributed this to an error on Hamilton’s part, commenting, “We asked to swap back, and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgement.”
The engine problem for Leclerc was a recurring one, severely hampering his ability to make progress. The team principal added, “The issue is that Charles had an issue on the engine five times in a row… it’s not the two tenths that you are losing on the engine, it’s the two tenths plus the gap.”
Qualifying performance pinpointed as key issue
Vasseur was clear that the foundation for the difficult Sunday was laid during Ferrari’s qualifying at the Azerbaijan GP. Starting further down the order meant the team was immediately caught in traffic, compounding their problems.
“We lost something yesterday. We started behind the race, which means behind the race, but it’s more yesterday,” Vasseur explained, pointing to qualifying as the real source of their struggles.
He also touched upon the complexities of the tyre strategy during the qualifying session. “The choice between the medium and soft compounds was not clear-cut, with track conditions shifting performance expectations from Friday’s practice sessions.”
I had the feeling that on Friday… the medium was faster. With the conditions yesterday, I think during the session everybody moved to the soft. Probably that the soft was faster,” he concluded. This uncertainty likely played a role in the team’s ultimate qualifying result. It set the stage for a difficult race from which they could not fully recover.
