Ferrari’s team boss thinks Lewis Hamilton’s biggest opponent right now isn’t McLaren or Red Bull—it’s the microphone.
Fred Vasseur has urged calm inside Maranello as Hamilton’s rocky start to life in red continues, suggesting the seven-time champion’s “extreme” reactions in the media only amplify small issues and drag the team into a storm it doesn’t need. Hamilton, still without a podium after 14 races with Ferrari, hit a new low in Budapest: 12th on the grid while Charles Leclerc stuck it on pole, then 12th again on Sunday. He branded himself “useless” and even hinted Ferrari should consider replacing him, later adding, “There’s a lot going on in the background that’s not great.”
Vasseur isn’t buying the crisis narrative. He’s known Hamilton since their ART GP days in 2006 and says the driver’s spikes are often public-facing. “Most of the time, he’s only that extreme with the press,” Vasseur noted. “By the time he comes into the briefing room, he’s usually calmed down again.”
The Frenchman’s read is simple: keep Hamilton steady, contextualize the bad days, and don’t let the noise metastasize. In Hungary, Vasseur points out, Hamilton was only a tenth off the man who later took pole in Q2—“no big deal,” in his words. The problem, he says, is the message that follows. “The message he sends out only makes things worse.”
As for the car, the much-discussed braking feel isn’t the smoking gun. Reports in Italy, including La Gazzetta dello Sport, have framed Ferrari’s engine-braking characteristics as a major complication in Hamilton’s adaptation, with upgraded Brembo materials also cited after his odd Spa spin. Vasseur concedes the sensation isn’t perfect but calls it marginal—“maybe half a tenth” a lap. It’s the sort of detail that can flip Q2 to Q3, he admits, but hardly a fundamental flaw. The danger, he adds, is that when Hamilton flags an issue, “everyone jumps on the problem,” and it grows out of proportion.
None of this means Hamilton’s demands are a headache. Vasseur likens him to Nico Hülkenberg from their Formula 3 days: relentless standards, but the first guy in at 6:30 a.m. “He demands a lot. From others, but also from himself. I can live with that.”
If the driver scrutiny is intense, the team boss hasn’t had it much easier. Vasseur was “really angry” at June’s rumor mill in Canada, which suggested his job was under threat with Antonello Coletta floated as a successor, while other reports claimed Ferrari even sounded out Christian Horner earlier in the year. Leclerc’s future was dragged in too, despite a fresh long-term deal, and technical director Loïc Serra took heat for a car largely finalized before he arrived. The background noise, Vasseur says, slowed his own talks with Ferrari—but it didn’t change the plan.
Ferrari’s line is clear: fix the details, lower the volume, and keep Hamilton focused. The theatrics can wait. The lap time can’t.
