Ferrari’s Formula 1 team boss Fred Vasseur has responded to Lewis Hamilton’s extreme pessimism following the Las Vegas Grand Prix, saying everybody must “calm down”.
The seven-time world champion crossed the line in 10th on Saturday night after starting on the back row following a disastrous qualifying, in which he failed to set a lap at the end of a wet Q1.
Although Hamilton therefore gained nine places in the race, and two more after McLaren's double disqualification, he was visibly upset afterwards, claiming to have taken “zero” positives from the weekend amid the “worst season ever”.
It has certainly been a disappointing debut campaign at Ferrari for him, as the 40-year-old is sixth in the 2025 standings, yet to score a grand prix podium and 74 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc with two rounds to go.
The Vegas result was made worse by the fact that Hamilton was positive following Thursday practice, having shown promising pace only for his hard work to be undone in qualifying.
That’s why Vasseur thinks the situation isn’t as bad as it seems: “I can understand the reaction from Lewis just after the race but we just have to calm down, to discuss and to be focused on the next two, because the next two we will be back.
“Keep in mind also that Lewis was there in FP1 and in FP2 the pace was good and we have to build up the weekend like this, and for sure to start from P20 [P19 thanks to Yuki Tsunoda’s pitlane start] is not the best way to have good results.”
Vasseur also thinks the situation was escalated by the fact that drivers must almost instantaneously head to their media interviews following a track session – meaning Hamilton didn’t have a chance to calm down.
“TV pen five minutes after the race when you have a tough race, it's very harsh for them,” the 57-year-old added. “I can perfectly understand the adrenaline, the emotion and to have a comment a bit harsh at this stage of the weekend.
“I would say that it's not normal... I don't know if ‘normal’ is the right word but I prefer to have drivers being very open at the end of the race when we didn't do the perfect job when the car was not good, to say ‘ok I'm frustrated’ than someone going to the TV pen saying ‘you know guys the team is perfect, the car is good blah blah blah’.
“In this case you would be upset but you can't blame them in any circumstances, and I think it's quite normal as humans sometimes on the radio or just after the session to be a bit, not upset, but to be a bit on the emotion.
“Now the most important is not what they say in the TV pen, it's what they do on the Monday morning with the team to try to do better and to try to push the team to do better – this is more the job of the drivers than [interviews in] the TV pen.”
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