[US, Mexico & Canada customers only] March 23, 2025; Shanghai, CHINA; Lewis Hamilton during the F1 Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Go Nakamura/Reuters via Imagn Images Go Nakamura/Reuters via Imagn Images

Ferrari Team Principal Defends Lewis Hamilton in Explosive Response

Originally posted on F1 on SI | By Nelson Espinal | Last updated Apr 22, 2025 6:32 AM ET

Ferrari's boss Fred Vasseur issued an explicit statement in support of Lewis Hamilton, who has struggled to assert himself at the Italian racing team.

Through five races this season, Charles Leclerc has outperformed Hamilton in their head-to-head matchups, with Lewis's only notable achievement being a sprint win in China.

Aside from that win, Leclerc has outperformed the seven-time world champion, especially in qualifying, where Hamilton has seemingly struggled the most.

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Hamilton's race pace remains strong, and his ability to manage tires is still impressive, but the characteristics of the car and Hamilton's driving style have not yielded ideal results.

After the race in Saudi Arabia, Vasseur was asked why Hamilton's form has declined, which prompted a heated response.

Fighting for every point pic.twitter.com/t0hYYwOmQt
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 20, 2025

“It’s not dramatically. We did five races so far. I know that you want to have the big headlines tomorrow that 'Fred said this.'"

"But this is f****** b******t. At the end of the day, we are in competition. You have ups and downs."

"When we have up, we are not world champions. When we have down, we are not nowhere. It's just a competition."

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Ferrari introduced a revised floor for the Bahrain race, which appears to have enhanced race pace and tire wear. However, the car overall struggles to achieve significant peak performance and has lagged behind Red Bull and Mercedes so far this year.

The McLaren seemed to be the class of the field heading into the season, and so far, Ferrari is still some way off competing for race wins.

Vasseur believes it is only a matter of time and work before the car improves enough to fight for wins.

"I'm not sure that you draw the same conclusion with Max last week when he was seventh. It is like it is. The competition is tight,” Vasseur said.

"You have 10 cars and a couple of tenths. Have a look at Max. He won in Japan. He finished 30 seconds behind Piastri in Bahrain, and in Saudi Arabia he was P2 and had pole position."

More points in the bag Continuing to push pic.twitter.com/4UKXqgGeb5
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 20, 2025

"We just have to stay calm. You can do whatever you want. I don't want to worry for you. At least for us as a team, we have to work step by step."

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"I think it paid off last year to do hundredths of seconds and hundredths of seconds and we need to keep the same approach."

"I will never be the guy who says we are world champions or we are nowhere. We are a team. We are struggling on the weekend. We have good results on the weekend. It's just that we have to improve step by step and stay calm.”

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This article first appeared on F1 on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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