Fred Vasseur insists he understands Lewis Hamilton’s “frustration”, after all, no driver in his history as a team principal ever said “I’m pleased to let you go [ahead]” to a team-mate.
Ferrari used team orders not once but twice in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, initially telling Charles Leclerc to let Hamilton through before swapping back.
Fred Vasseur: I can perfectly understand the frustration.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock
Hamilton was not happy, telling his race engineer Riccardo Adami that it was “not great team work”.
And when he was finally told that Ferrari would swap the positions, he fired back: “Ah, have a tea break while you’re at it!”
But unable to catch Kimi Antonelli for sixth place, Hamilton was told to give the position back to Leclerc. That put Carlos Sainz on his rear wing, the Briton chirping: “You want me to let him pass as well?”
The team-mates finished seventh and eighth with Leclerc again getting the better of Hamilton in a Grand Prix.
Hamilton revealed Vasseur came to speak with him, at which time he downplayed any suggestion of tension.
“Fred came to my room,” Hamilton revealed. “I just put my hand on his shoulder and was like, ‘dude, calm down, don’t be so sensitive’.
“I could have said way worse things on the radio. You hear some of the things others have said in the past, some of it was sarcasm.”
From his side, the Ferrari team principal completely understood Hamilton’s frustration in the moment, but sometimes Ferrari have to make the tough calls.
And this one, swapping back if the driver cannot catch the car ahead, is actually team policy.
“I had a discussion with Lewis and I can perfectly understand the frustration,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “They are champions, they want to win races. We are asking them to let the team go. It’s not easy. It’s never easy. And I didn’t see another team to do it today.
“That’s why we took the responsibility to do it. Because it’s the policy to the team. We are racing for Ferrari first and honestly I think as a team we did a good job.
“Again, you can argue that it would have been better to do it half a lap before or half a lap later. But when you are in the pit wall and you have to understand if the car behind is faster than the car in front, just for DRS or not, it’s not an easy call.
“It’s always much easier to do it two hours later. We asked them to do it, they did it.
“Now the frustration when you are in the car, I can perfectly understand this. And we had a discussion and it was much more relaxed.
It’s not the story of the day. We did 6-7, instead of 7-6 or 6-7 or 7-6. I would be much more keen to speak about why we finished one minute behind McLaren.”
The long-time team boss, who co-founded ART Grand Prix in 2004 before moving into Formula 1, admits that team orders are always frustrating for drivers, as he’s never heard one say they’re fine with it.
“What happened today isn’t a problem for me at all,” he said. “I completely understand their frustration when we ask for something like this.”
“In my entire career—and I’ve had to make these kinds of calls a few times—I’ve never seen a driver happily agree to give up a position.”
“It’s tough for them because it feels like they’re surrendering a place.”
“But for the good of the team, which sometimes works out and sometimes doesn’t, we have to keep the same goal in mind, and they’re fully on board with that.”
With Hamilton’s radio messages to Adami made public, he was questioned by the media about his sharp remarks after the race.
Vasseur, however, wasn’t bothered and stood by the team’s decisions in Miami.
For him, the key is that trust within the team remains intact.
“I’m not concerned about what he says on TV; what matters is that we’re clear with each other,” Vasseur explained. “He needs to understand my perspective, and we need mutual trust—between me, him, and Charles too.
“When I have to make a decision for Ferrari, it happens live. You don’t have 30 minutes to think. You quickly review the data, decide who’s fastest, and check if it’s because of DRS or something else.
“Maybe it was a bit slow, but it only took a lap or so to decide.
“When you’re the trailing car, you expect the swap to happen right away, but when you’re leading, you don’t think DRS is playing a role.”
Hamilton ended the race in eighth, earning 10 points total, but he stays seventh in the Drivers’ standings, 90 points behind Oscar Piastri.
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