Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has revealed the team will aim to adapt its 2025 Formula 1 car to Lewis Hamilton amid the Briton’s declaration that the SF-25 is “alien” to him.
Hamilton encountered a mixed weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix as he qualified down in ninth place, but rebounded with a strong race drive to come home inside the top five.
The Briton was despondent as his recurring one-lap troubles in this rules era continued, admitting that he “didn’t have the answers” to his vast five-tenth gap to Charles Leclerc.
But Hamilton was more upbeat as he rallied to cross the line one place behind his team-mate, indicating post-race that he has uncovered a breakthrough with the Ferrari.
With Hamilton having been accustomed to Mercedes hardware since 2013, Vasseur highlighted that patience must be reserved even for a driver with seven championships.
Asked about the challenge Hamilton has taken on in acclimatising to a Ferrari car, Vasseur told media including Motorsport Week: “You won’t replace 12 years of collaboration in two weeks or in two races.
“That means that for sure we need to improve, but I think this is true for everybody in the team, in the paddock, that we have the DNA for our sport is to try to do a better job and I think it’s good to have Lewis with this mindset to say, ‘OK, I have to improve also myself and to adapt myself to the car.’
“We will work on the car to adapt the car to Lewis, but he also has to do a step. And I think this, between us, is done in a positive way and a very constructive way.”
Vasseur unconcerned with Hamilton despondency
Vasseur dismissed that he harboured concern over the visible discontent Hamilton showed post-qualifying, citing that he was pleased to see such a reaction to a setback.
“Now the fact that he was a bit down yesterday evening, I like it,” he added.
“Because if the guy is coming back in P10 [sic] and he says it’s a shame, for sure he was disappointed because he was much better [than that] all the weekend so far.”
The Frenchman also pinpointed how the close margins separating the grid over one lap have guaranteed that there is a greater consequence attached to errors than ever.
“Now we know that it’s happened like this in F1 today that it was not the case three, four years ago that when you have five tenths between the team because you do a mistake you lose one position, one row,” he explained.
“Today you lose five tenths, you can lose six or seven positions. I think Charles was on the first row, but it was three or four hundredths slower, he would have been P6.
“It’s always relative that we have to stay calm in term of judgement of the performance because sometimes for almost nothing you can change a good weekend in a very poor one and vice versa.
“I appreciated the reaction of Lewis yesterday. I did my best to push him a little bit. Today he was in a very good shape and a very strong shape, but let’s start from there next week and I hope to do my best.“
READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton opens up on challenge adapting to ‘alien’ Ferrari F1 car
