Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s team principal, opened up to AMuS about how Lewis Hamilton is feeling in the car and adjusting to the Italian team. The seven times world champion joined the Scuderia ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 season. He completed the line-up next to Charles Leclerc. Though Ferrari currently holds second place in the Teams’ championship with 260 points, they are miles off McLaren in first. With Hamilton struggling to find his place in the team, Vasseur saw improvement from the British driver since the Canadian GP.
From Mercedes to Ferrari
Vasseur admitted that Hamilton and himself were too optimistic with the change from Mercedes to Ferrari. He was expecting that the Brit could adjust quicker. This was not the case, as Hamilton needed a few races to find his place in the red car. The team principal claimed that Hamilton “has been on the unlucky side” recently, citing Hungary as an example.
“It’s often down to circumstances, and Lewis [Hamilton] has been on the unlucky side more often than not recently. 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.”
He added that the seven-time champion raced for British teams the last 18 years. And even though he changed from McLaren to Mercedes, it was easier to adjust than after the change from Mercedes to Ferrari for Hamilton. With not only having to adjust to the car, and new power unit, but also to the Italian way of work.
“Looking back, I have to admit that we, by which I mean Lewis [Hamilton] and I, underestimated the change to a different environment. He had been with the same team for 18 years, if I may, 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.
“When Lewis [Hamilton] arrived at Ferrari, we naively thought that he would have everything under control. He is not like Carlos Sainz, who changes teams every few years and is familiar with the process. It took Lewis four to five races to get the situation under control. Since the Canadian Grand Prix, he has actually been on track.”
The key to make everyone comfortable is to “stay calm”
Vasseur claimed that Hamilton is “very self-critical” which makes him driven to get out the most of the Ferrari team and himself. The team principal added that they need to help Hamilton to calm down when a session doesn’t go his way. Though the Brit shares his frustration in the media pen, inside the briefing room he remains his calm self.
Vasseur added that Hamilton “demand[ed] a lot” from the whole of the Ferrari team. The Frenchman compared him to Nico Hülkenberg during his Formula 3 spell.
“Stay calm. Build on the fact that he has already taken the first step. Don’t let things like what happened in Budapest get you down. Lewis is very self-critical. He always goes to extremes. Sometimes he is too hard on the car, sometimes on himself. He wants to get the most out of himself and everyone in the team. You have to calm him down and explain to him that in Q2 he was only a tenth of a second behind the driver who later took pole position.
“That’s no big deal. The message he sends out only makes things worse. Most of the time, he’s only that extreme with the press. By the time he comes into the briefing room, he’s usually calmed down again. That’s just his way. For me, it’s no big deal. He demands a lot. From others, but also from himself. I can live with that. Nico Hülkenberg was the same when he drove for me in Formula 3. He demanded an awful lot from the team. But he was also there every morning at 6:30 a.m.”
Hamilton “exaggerates problems” the team tries to solve
Vasseur assured that the problems for Hamilton aren’t big, even though they may look like it for everyone outside Ferrari. With the recent Qualifying result in Budapest in mind, Leclerc starting on pole and Hamilton in P12, the difference may be small but was the reason between Q2 and Q3.
Vasseur added that Hamilton “sometimes exaggerates the problems” the Brit thinks to see in the car. He says he is making them seem bigger than they were, while the team wanted to solve this problem for the race.
“We solve the problems step by step. They’re not huge, they just look that way. If the braking system isn’t quite how the driver would like it to be, then maybe half a tenth is lost. From the outside, it’s often difficult to quickly identify exactly where that half a tenth is being lost. Such a minimal time difference can ruin your whole weekend.
“It can be the difference between Q2 and Q3. Lewis sometimes exaggerates the problems he sees in the car. The team then naturally wants to respond, and everyone jumps on this problem. I don’t think so. As long as we had bouncing, maybe. But even though we always drive at the limit of bouncing, we now have it reasonably under control.”
