Scuderia Ferrari had a relatively disappointing P4 and P5 at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, with their boss Fred Vasseur discussing the middle stint controversy between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
From P5 and P6 on the inital grid, they found themselves there after the second restart, although it was Charles Leclerc ahead of Lewis Hamilton as the Brit had edged the battle in qualifying.
In the second stint, both drivers overhauled Oscar Piastri, with the seven-time World Champion then catching his teammate. The Brit was on hards, with Leclerc on mediums.
Car #44 got within a second on the 41st tour. Having been doing low 1:16s, the 42nd and 43rd laps saw Hamilton do a 1:16.8 and a 1:17.4 as he got stuck behind car #16. Ferrari pitted Leclerc at the end of lap 43; the Brit did not hide his frustration and used some sarcasm over the radio as well.
Leclerc was also left puzzled post-race as he wanted to build a bigger tyre delta to George Russell. Instead, he only had a three-lap offset before a VSC appeared on lap 55. Ultimately, neither driver could overtake car #63 at the end.
Fred Vasseur on Ferrari and its strategy at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP
Speaking about the communication issues going on and those messy couple of laps, Vasseur revealed that they did not want to tell Lewis Hamilton over the radio they were planning on a one-stop because other teams would find out; he boxed off the softs and switched to hards on lap 25.
Nonetheless, the seven-time World Champion was overtaken by Norris and Antonelli after their second stops, before he boxed himself under the VSC for a second time.
“We didn’t want to tell him the strategy at this stage because we didn’t want to disclose it to the competitors.
“We wanted to keep him on track until the end. But if he was able to keep Antonelli behind him, I think it would have been the right call.
“Charles was supposed to pit. We extended one lap and it was a kind of confusion.
“I’m not worried about this. Everybody will be back in the briefing. They will have a clear picture about the race.
“Charles was a bit frustrated at one stage about the [medium] compound. I think everybody was a bit lost about the compound. Norris started with mediums on the first start, then he moved to softs.
“The difference between the three compounds was very marginal today. It was difficult to have a clear picture on the strategy.
“Sometimes, we have to change the strategy or adapt, because we are trying to learn from the others also. For them, it’s a bit frustrating.”
Hamilton getting stuck behind Leclerc
As Lewis Hamilton had a more durable tyre and a four-lap tyre offset to Charles Leclerc, a swap looked logical like Mercedes did later in the race.
Fred Vasseur explained that Charles Leclerc stayed out a lap longer than planned as the Monegasque was calling over the radio to extend his stint in the 2026 F1 Dutch GP. In the end, he did pit at the end of the next tour, lap 43.
“You can always say after the race that it would have been better to do it on lap 26 also.
“The story is that when Lewis came back on Charles, we were expecting him to pit. Then we had someone in the shadow of the car. We asked him to do one lap more. You can’t ask him to do one lap more and to swap positions in the straight line. It’s not so easy.
“Honestly, if I have a look at the race now, I can do it differently. The main issue is that we didn’t tell Lewis that we were expecting him to go to the end. It was not a matter of pushing.”
