Ferrari wonders if it underestimated impact of Hamilton’s F1 team switch

Frederic Vasseur has admitted Ferrari may have underestimated what it would take for Lewis Hamilton to successfully switch to the Scuderia in Formula 1.

Ferrari team boss Vasseur snatched Hamilton away from Mercedes for the 2025 season after the Englishman had the longest and most successful collaboration in F1 history with the Anglo-German outfit. Over 12 seasons, their shared record included no fewer than 78 pole positions, 153 podium finishes including 84 victories, and six drivers’ titles.

Hamilton has somewhat struggled for performance since the ground-effect era began in 2022, and his recent switch to Ferrari has hitherto failed to yield convincing results, despite a sprint win at Shanghai. The 40-year-old has been outqualified by new team-mate Charles Leclerc 13-5 so far, collecting 109 points to the Monegasque’s 151, and is yet to appear on the podium in red.

“I don’t know if we underestimated the importance of the change,” Vasseur pondered on the Beyond The Grid podcast. “He spent 10 years at McLaren [14 including six as an F1 race driver] and then 12 with Mercedes, but it was also a kind of continuity – two teams based in UK with the same engine, with the same environment.

“So it’s a complete change for him in his life, the culture of the team and everything. To do it in three days [of testing] in the winter period, it’s quite difficult, and I think also the expectation was huge, but we have to put everything in place. It’s taking time and we have also to manage the expectation and manage the noise around the team.”

Vasseur was keen to point out that Hamilton, albeit usually outperformed by Leclerc, rarely is miles away in terms of pace.

“We are speaking about details,” the Frenchman said. “The comments are positive or negative for plus or minus one tenth of a second, or plus or minus a click of front wing, or plus or minus something, but it’s always marginal. And this we have to keep in mind.

“If we’re not able to put everything together from the preparation of the weekend, adaptation to the simulator, blah blah until Sunday, you can miss one tenth there or one tenth there, and this is making a huge difference in terms of pure results.

“We have to stay calm. He did very well in China. We had a very good recovery around Monaco – he was there in quali just with the top four, and then we got the penalty [a three-place grid drop for impeding Max Verstappen]. All the races after this one we were back into a good pace – even Spa and Budapest, for different reasons it didn’t work but the pace was there.”

The data backs up Vasseur’s point – to some extent – as over the first 18 qualifying sessions of the season (sprints included) the average gap is 0.177s to Leclerc’s favour, slightly skewed by a couple of driving errors by Hamilton, and the Briton has finished five grands prix right behind his team-mate, however beating him in just two.

Hamilton has gradually become more and more downbeat – at least in his interactions with the press – as the season went on and his struggles became more obvious, to the point that he suggested Ferrari needed to replace him after a Q2 exit at the Hungaroring, which followed a brace of Q1 mishaps at Spa-Francorchamps.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“He’s emotional – it’s up to us to support him when he’s struggling, and we also need to push him when he’s struggling,” Vasseur insisted. “Spa and Budapest were difficult for him, but he can be sure he has the full support of everybody at Maranello to recover, to be back.

“I’m really convinced he will do it and we have to be supportive with him every single day. I will be supportive every single day with Lewis.”

Letting Wolff know about Hamilton was “not the easiest call of my life”

Vasseur also reflected on his longtime friendship with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, and how it was impacted by high-profile hires like Hamilton as well as Mercedes performance director Loic Serra, who became Ferrari’s chassis technical director last year.

“We always try to keep the two aspects completely separate – the friendly relationship that we can have and the fight on track,” Vasseur clarified.

Peter Bayer, CEO, RB F1 Team, Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari, Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“It’s true that when I was at Sauber [as its team principal] the fight on track wasn’t every single weekend. Today we’re fighting – also more fighting on the recruitment, but I think we’re clever enough to keep the last 25 years of friendly relationship in mind. Even if we’re fighting on Sunday or Saturday, to know that Monday morning we can start from scratch.”

Delving more specifically into personnel being poached by either team, a philosophical Vasseur commented: “This is the life of a Formula 1 team, and we don’t have to be upset with this. For sure, when I had to give the call to Toto about Lewis, it wasn’t the easiest call of my life, because I’m perfectly aware of what happened when they helped me a lot also at some stages in my life. I try to keep it separately.

“Toto is my friend. He will stay my friend for the next 30 years of my life. We are fighting. I hope that Toto will stay my friend.”