Ferrari principal defends Miami GP team orders after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc vent frustration | F1 News

Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur believes his team “did a good job” despite Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc venting their frustration during the Miami Grand Prix.

Hamilton asked to go past team-mate Leclerc during the middle of the race as he attempted to catch Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli for sixth but was not let through straight away.

He became increasingly frustrated before Leclerc stood aside after a few laps but could not pull away on his medium tyres.

The seven-time world champion then allowed Leclerc back by and sarcastically asked if he should also let the Williams of Carlos Sainz through, with the Ferrari pair eventually finishing seventh and eighth.

Hamilton revealed he told Ferrari team principal Vasseur not to “be so sensitive” when speaking to him post-race, and said he wouldn’t apologise for “being a fighter”.

Vasseur told Sky Sports F1: “I can understand the frustration of the guys in the cars but in the end it was well executed because Lewis was behind Charles, with a softer compound, we let him go and as per our internal rules in the team, we swapped back at the end.

“We gave the chance to Lewis to go in front of Charles because it was impossible to overtake between them if we don’t let them go and it was an opportunity for Lewis to catch Antonelli. I think we did a good job.”

Among the feisty radio exchanges Hamilton brought up the Chinese Grand Prix, when he moved over for Leclerc, and at one point he said “have a tea break while you’re at it, come on!”

“I had a discussion with Lewis and I can perfectly understand the frustration. They are champions, they want to win races,” said Vasseur.

“We are asking them to let their team-mate go. It’s not easy, it’s never easy. We took the responsibility to do it because it’s the policy of the team.

“We are racing for Ferrari first. Honestly, I think as a team we did a good job. Again, we can argue that it would have been better to do it half a lap before or half a lap later.

“But when you are in the pit wall you have to understand if the car is behind is faster because of DRS or not. It’s not an easy call. It’s always much easier to do it two hours later.

“We asked them to do it. They did it. Now the frustration when you are in the car, I can perfectly understand this. We had a discussion and it was much more relaxed.”

Vasseur: Hamilton can trust me

Hamilton and Vasseur have known each other since the mid-2000s in GP2, which was the motorsport championship below F1.

Vasseur, who is in his third season as Ferrari team principal, reiterated he does “not have an issue” with Sunday’s team order dispute or the reaction of his drivers.

“He [Hamilton] can trust me, I can trust him. The same with Charles,” he said.

“When I have to make a decision, I’m making a decision for Ferrari with the element that you have [to do it] live.

“It’s not that you have 30 minutes to have a look at the data. You have to decide which is the fastest track, if it’s coming from the DRS or not.

“Perhaps a bit slow, but it took us one lap or one-lap-and-a-half to make a decision. You can always, when you are behind, have the feeling that you have to swap in the next corner.

“And when you are in front, you say, ‘please have a look if it’s not the DRS effect’. I think it was the reverse situation 10 laps later.”

Where are Ferrari in the pecking order?

Vasseur was keen to stress that the “bigger story” was Ferrari’s lack of pace as they finished nearly one minute behind race winner Oscar Piastri.

McLaren’s one-two vs Ferrari’s seventh and eighth has put them 152 points ahead of the Italian team after just six events.

Leclerc, in seventh, was 20 seconds behind George Russell in third but Vasseur believes Ferrari had the pace of Mercedes and Red Bull in race trim and need to work on their performance in qualifying with new tyres.

“The pace in Miami is difficult when you are stuck in the pack. The pace was probably matching with Red Bull and Mercedes,” he said.

“I think McLaren was on another planet. We never said that we could have fought with McLaren. But with a better position, we thought we could fight with Max [Verstappen] and Mercedes.”

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