After 20 years of being powered by Mercedes, Fred Vassuer admits that he underestimated the challenge facing Lewis Hamilton in switching to Ferrari.

"I personally underestimated the step," admits the Frenchman. "It's not that we are doing worse or better, it's that we are just doing differently.

"It's not just about the food or the weather," he continues, "it's that every single software is different, every single component is different, the people around him, they were different, and if you are not on the top of everything, you leave on the table a couple of hundredths of seconds, and today with the field that we have... I think it was in Abu Dhabi in Q2 that you had one tenth covering P5 and P15.

"We were not in full control of every single detail and package," he admits, "and we lost a bit of the path of the season like this."

Looking ahead, Vasseur, who has himself been under enormous personal pressure this season, admits that improvements are needed not only from Hamilton but from the team.

"It has to come from everywhere," he says. "I think that the mindset of the team and the mindset of the driver has to be that let's try to do a better job everywhere.

"It's not that you have something which is going well and the rest is going wrong," he continues. "At the end of the day, we have to improve. We have to improve the collaboration with Lewis. We have to improve on the team. He has to improve perhaps on how he gets the best from the car that he has.

"It's not that when you are three tenths behind someone, it's not that they have the magic bullet or they have the component in the car with three tenths faster," he adds. "Quite often, it's that you have ten topics where you are three-hundredths of a second slower. One after one, we have to tackle each point."

The Frenchman, who worked with the seven-time world champion before he made it to F1, believes that the Briton will benefit from the experience of his first season at Maranello and develop a better understanding of the team, as was the case with his Monegasque teammate.

"Honestly, it's also a matter of mindset, a matter of understanding each other. I'm speaking about one side of the garage.

"In this case, it's because with Charles we know each other. But in this case, it's more to understand exactly what he needs, what he wants. And for him, the same for me, to understand exactly what he would like to do."

Another aspect where the Frenchman believes Hamilton currently fails is in his negativity when dealing with the media. When he's not shrugging his shoulders in defeat or answering questions in a manner that would make Kimi Raikkonen seem verbose, the Briton suggests that he no longer has it, that his time in the sport is over.

"When you are out in Q1, I hope the driver is mega upset with himself and with the team," says the Ferrari boss. "I'm not sure that you, journalists, you prefer to have someone going to the TV pen saying, 'no, everything is normal, blah, blah, blah'... all the usual bullshit.

"I respect perfectly the position of the drivers when they have this attitude. The most important for me is also to have someone collaborating with the team. It's much better to have someone not speaking in the TV pen and coming back to the debriefing, speaking with the engineers, trying to find solutions and it's the attitude that Lewis had even when he had a tough moment in the last part of the season and this is putting a positive energy into the team.

"Now, honestly, and I have exactly the same situation with all of you, that when you are jumping on me and I'm going down to the pit-wall after a tough race and you have tonnes of questions, sometimes I don't want to spend too much time to answer the questions."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Geeza1966, 7 hours ago

"I have a saying that may be relevant to this whole Lewis/Fred/Ferrari scenario.... I cut my teeth in retail management back in the day in the 80's through 90's.... There was a saying that basically manifested itself as thus; "There are 3 kinds of manager.... The manager that makes things happen, the manager that watches things happen, and the manager that wonders what's happened???" I fear that Fred is the latter of these 3 situations due to the lack of real input to enforce change that maybe the MO at Ferrari.... I personally feel that if Lewis has been honest and open enough to highlight thier collective shortcomings, and his subsequent findings not having been taken on-board as a management tool for improvement, that they are just like the Titanic.... Doomed. I hope not... But............."

Rating: Negative (-1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Wokingchap, 21/12/2025 13:51

"Fred's right, but he should have thought of this 8 months ago."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Vasseur underestimated the challenge Hamilton faced

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page