Ferrari boss backs struggling Lewis Hamilton: "Ask the same question to Max"
Fred Vasseur has his say on downbeat Lewis Hamilton's woes
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has backed Lewis Hamilton following another disappointing performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton qualified and finished 12th in an underwhelming showing at one of his best circuits, while teammate Charles Leclerc finished fourth after leading the early stages of Sunday’s race.
After exiting Q2 at the Hungaroring, Hamilton said he was “useless” and suggested Ferrari need to change their driver, with Leclerc able to take a superb shock pole position.
“He’s demanding. But I think it’s also why he’s a seven-time world champion, he’s demanding with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the mechanics, with myself also,” Vasseur told media including Crash.net.
“But first of all, he’s very demanding with himself. It’s always been a good motivation for him. The main reason of performance. For sure, when you are a seven-time world champion and your teammate is in pole position, and you are out in Q2, it’s tough, it’s a tough situation.
"But we can also have a deep look, he was in front of Charles in Q1, on the first set, he was one-tenth off in Q2. We are not far away to have the two cars out in Q2. And the outcome of this is Charles at the end is able to do the pole position, but it’s not… honestly, the gap was not 1.2 seconds yesterday.
“But I can understand the frustration from Lewis. This is normal. He will come back, now we’ve discussed a lot yesterday, the race today was difficult because we took some bet to start with hard, so then he was stuck in the DRS train.
“But when he was alone, the pace was good. But for sure, he will be back in Zandvoort and he will perform.”
Vasseur stressed: “I don't need to motivate him. Honestly, he's frustrated, but not demotivated.”
Are Ferrari worried about Lewis Hamilton’s form?
It marked a second consecutive troubled weekend for Lewis Hamilton, whose qualifying form on Saturdays in 2025 continues to disappoint.
The 40-year-old Briton has been convincingly outperformed by Leclerc in both qualifying and races so far in 2025.
But Vasseur dismissed suggestions he is concerned about Hamilton’s form.
“I would prefer to do P1 and P1, but we already know that you could ask the same question to Max,” Vasseur said.
“That I think it's a championship, this season is completely different, it's very, very tight. When you are not into the pace, you can do P14 in qualy. We know that yesterday in qualy, it didn't went well.
“Then we took some bets, and when you do a bet like this to start with hards, you know that you can lose position or not. We lost. And then we did the bet also to go for one stop, because when you are P14 and you have a train of DRS, you have to do different, and it didn't work.”
And Vasseur was quick point to Hamilton’s recent gains compared to Leclerc.
"If you have a look at Q1, in the first set, he is in front of Charles,” Vasseur explained. “The second one, he’s in a tenth off Charles, and in the end, Charles is doing the pole position.
“The issue is that when we were lacking performance, and at risk, he did one lap two-tenths slower than Charles and he was out in Q2. I don’t know if we were unlucky with Lewis or lucky with Charles to go through, to be able to compete in Q3 and do the pole.
“At the end of the day, it’s really on the edge. I think it was almost the same for Max. I spoke this morning with Laurent [Mekies, Red Bull team principal] and they were quite close to being out.
“It’s so tight that you can go out and it’s not because you are out that you are nowhere. If you complete Q3, then you can do a good result.
“He had a good recovery after Miami, Spain, Silverstone, Austria, that he was matching Charles, Canada, two or three times he was in front of Charles in qualy. But the last weekend, when he lost the car, turn 14, he was six-tenths faster than Charles.
“I know the game, you have to finish the lap, and I know the game, you have to finish the race, makes no sense to lead the race for 40 laps if you are not able to finish. You have to avoid drawing too quickly conclusions.”
Asked if he believes Ferrari are getting their money’s worth out of Hamilton, Vasseur replied: “I’m not sure that I understand your question, or if I understand, it’s not a good one.
“We are taking drivers because we want to compete into the championship, and to score points, and to win races.”
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Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
