Vasseur over-eggs his certainty in Hamilton  –  Lewis Hamilton is as of new Year’s day a driver for Formula One’s most iconic team, Ferrari. Despite having signed what was presented as a multi-year deal with Mercedes late in 2023, before a wheel turned in anger last season, Hamilton dropped the bombshell he was leaving the team after just one season of his new deal.

Toto Wolff eventually admitted this was a risk he had taken knowingly when putting ink to paper and appeared to suggest his caution over Hamilton’s long term future had been based on the fact that every F1 driver has a “shelf life.”

As details emerged of Lewis’ negotiations with ferrari, it became apparent that his move to Ferrari was not brokered by team principal Fred Vasseur, but the the group Ferrari president John Elkann, who has been a fan of Hamilton throughout his F1 career.

 

 

 

Hamilton not recruited by Vasseur

This kind of ‘behind the back’ manoeuvre would usually diminish an F1 team boss’s standing within the organisation, yet Vasseur was a close friend the British driver having worked with him during his GP2 days at ART.

Vasseur had stated just weeks before the Hamilton announcement he was happy with his current driver lineup and expected them to both extend their contracts. Then in late January 2024, just Charles Leclerc’s new deal was presented to the world, raising suspicions over the future of his Spanish team mate.

The Scuderia have rolled the red carpet out for the seven times F1 champion, offering him the use of Enzo’s home in Fiorano, something previously reserved to the Ferrari legend, Michael Schumacher. The team have also announced an extensive ‘previous years car’ testing programme for Lewis before the F1 circus meets up again in Bahrain for pre-season testing.

Throughout Hamilton’s final miserable season with Mercedes, F1 observers questioned whether Ferrari had made the right move in signing someone who may be past his best. Yet throughout the media inquisitions, Vasseur remained positive about Ferrari’s future with Hamilton, although there has been the occasional chink in the up beat propaganda which presents the future as only bright.

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Leclerc upbeat about new team mate

Lewis suffered his worst season in F1 during the 2024 campaign, he was destroyed 19-5 in qualifying by team mate George Russell and even hinted at not competing over the final three race weekends after a miserable outing in Brazil. Yet next time out in Las Vegas, Hamilton carved through the field from a start position of P10, to hunt down his team mate George Russell in a close fight for the race win.

Charles Leclerc too has been super positive about the arrival of his seven times world champion team mate. “When a champion like Lewis gets to any team, it brings a lot of motivation out of every single person,” Leclerc explained to F1.com. “He will come along with all the experience that he’s had over the years with Mercedes – a different way of working, a different vision – and this is always benefitting a team.”

Vasseur too has been positive in the New Year about Ferrari’s latest star driver, although at one point the boss of the Scuderia appeared to protest a little too much.

Ferrari are in a good place currently having finished the season strongly, just failing to catch McLaren by fourteen points at the final hurdle. Its been seventeen long years since Ferrari last won the constructors’ title and they enter this year’s campaign as favourites alongside McLaren.

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Vasseur ‘protests too much’

Vasseur is upbeat about the arrival of Hamilton despite his woeful final year with Mercedes. “He’s coming with his own experience, his own background and this will be helpful for the development of the team. It will be helpful for Charles and it will be helpful for the engineers – and we have to take it as another step going in the right direction. It’s positive for us.”

The Ferrari boss presents his team as one in transition and that Lewis is merely another moving cog in that machinery. When presented with Lewis’ shocking final year at Mercedes, Vasseur remains upbeat: “He had very good races in Vegas, in Abu Dhabi [in 2024] and I was never, really, never, never, never worried about the situation,” said Vasseur.

Such a repetitive three times a denial brings to mind the Shakespeare character Queen Gertrude, who said “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” in response to a character’s insincere overacting. Vasseur’s protest of  “never, never, never” being concerned has a similar ring to it.

“I’m really convinced that it was the situation, and I don’t want to blame Lewis or Mercedes, but this situation, it’s not easy to manage and I can understand that if it’s not going very well, you can suffer [in] this relationship,” continues the Ferrari boss.

“[All] was not very well in his mind – he was clear in Brazil about this, for example – but he also did very, very well on the last couple of events. I’m not worried at all.”

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Ferrari on course for 2025 title

Fred was questioned as to whether there were any tips he could offer Lewis to make the enormous adjustment of joining Ferrari. The language is strange to Hamilton as will be the culture of the team, which will not be focused around just his needs.

“No, I think he has to come like he is,” he tells me. “For sure we have to manage in terms of atmosphere around the team. Pressure is not the right word but the passion of the tifosi, the passion of the press, it’s completely different.

“But the target is the same. The approach of the business is the same – to try and do the best with the car and the engineers. We have to keep this focus and not be too focused on the world outside.”

In terms of wining titles this season, Vasseur is upbeat on the progress of the Scuderia. “Yes,” he insists. “It’s the next step. We did P3, P2 – we are going in this direction. We are doing good steps on the team side, on the car side.

“Everything is going in this direction. Now I’m convinced it won’t be easy. McLaren is doing a mega job. I’m sure Mercedes and Red Bull will push to come back and it will be a good fight on track next year with at least four teams. It won’t be easy but I think we are putting everything together to be able to do it,” concludes the amiable Frenchman.

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