Vasseur pushes back on Wolff’s Hamilton theory: “It’s not a driving-style problem”
Fred Vasseur isn’t buying the idea that Lewis Hamilton’s struggles in the ground‑effect era come down to how he drives a Formula 1 car.
In the build-up to the summer break, Toto Wolff floated the notion that the seven-time champion’s style might not gel with the current regulations — the same era in which Mercedes never truly nailed its concept. Hamilton’s frustrations, and Ferrari’s spiky form, only added oxygen to the topic. No wins in red so far. A dip in morale. That blunt “I’m useless, absolutely useless… probably need to change driver” line from the Briton after another bruising Sunday.
Vasseur’s response? Thanks, but no thanks.
“I don’t think so,” the Ferrari team boss told Auto Motor und Sport when asked if Hamilton is at war with this ruleset. “If we had had bouncing, maybe. But even though we are always on the verge of bouncing, we now have it under control to some extent.”
The numbers tell a mixed story. Hamilton sits a place behind Charles Leclerc in the standings but trails by 42 points, still waiting for a podium while Leclerc’s banked five and a pole. That gap invites simple diagnoses. Vasseur insists the reality is more layered — and, crucially, more situational.
“Often it is the circumstances, and Lewis has been on the unfortunate side more often recently,” he said, pointing to Budapest qualifying as a snapshot. Hamilton was ahead of Leclerc in Q1 and only a tenth off in Q2; 15 thousandths shy of advancing. Leclerc went on, Hamilton went out. “Of course, that looks stupid. But it didn’t take much for us to finish eleventh and twelfth with our two drivers.”
There’s also the human element of a seismic switch. After 18 seasons inside English teams — McLaren then Mercedes — Hamilton walked into Maranello this year. New culture, new engineering language, new rhythms.
“Looking back, I have to admit that we, by which I mean Lewis and I, underestimated the move to a different environment,” Vasseur said. “It’s a bigger difference between Ferrari and Mercedes than between Mercedes and McLaren. When Lewis 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 would be familiar with this process.”
According to Vasseur, it took “four to five races” for Hamilton to get fully on top of systems and processes. “Since the Canadian GP, he has actually been on course.”
So no silver-bullet explanation, no stylistic mismatch. Ferrari’s boss is framing Hamilton’s first months in red as a convergence issue, not a conceptual one. If he’s right, the second half of 2025 should settle the argument.
