Vasseur Understands Hamilton’s Frustration After the Hungarian Grand Prix
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has expressed his full understanding of Lewis Hamilton’s frustration after the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. The seven-time world champion underperformed. After qualifying in twelfth position on Saturday, Hamilton expressed his disappointment, going so far as to suggest that Ferrari “needed to change drivers,” while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, secured pole position. Upon finishing the race on Sunday in the same position, Hamilton reiterated his feelings from the previous day.
Vasseur insists that the difference between Leclerc and Hamilton was not as big as it seemed in qualifying, with Hamilton only 0.015 seconds away from passing to Q3. Ferrari’s boss believes Hamilton’s frustration stems from his high expectations and his desire to compete at the front of the grid. “He’s demanding. But I think that’s also why he’s a seven-time world champion, he’s demanding of the team, of the car, of the engineers, of the mechanics, of me too. But, first of all, he’s very demanding of himself,” added Vasseur. “When you are a seven-time world champion and your teammate is in pole position and you are out in Q2, it’s difficult; it’s a tough situation. But we can see that in Q1 he was ahead of Charles, in the first set; in Q2 he was a tenth behind. We are not far from having both cars in Q2. And the result of this is that Charles eventually achieves pole position, but no… Honestly, the difference wasn’t 1.2 seconds yesterday. But I can understand Lewis’ frustration. This is normal,” he concluded.“I don’t need to motivate him. Honestly, he’s frustrated, but not demotivated. I can perfectly understand the situation. Sometimes you make comments about what the driver says in the car, but if you put the microphone on other athletes in football, I’m not sure it’s much better,” commented Vasseur.
Fred Vasseur
