Fred Vasseur, Ferrari boss: “Hamilton and Leclerc? It’s disrespectful and unacceptable. I’m very angry. The situation is getting out of hand. We have to have a serious talk.”

Imagine paying a million-dollar salary to two drivers and having them fight on the track when they are first and second, thus throwing away what could have been a double in the race in F1 and leading to striking radios and a subsequent exchange of statements. That’s what the Ferrari team boss had to do with, Fred Vasseur, in a Formula 1 Mexican GP in which the red cars had everything in their favor at the start to end with a perfect 1-2.

Hamilton, from pole, started very well and was able to defend his first position in Turn 1 despite the enormous slipstream in Mexico, which usually benefits drivers who start from the second row. From there Charles started, who came out like a rocket to catch up with his teammate and put the car on the outside in turn 1 and do it again on the inside of turn 2. There, Hamilton had to open his route, something forced by Charles, and that placed him in a vulnerable situation. before a Charles who would try again.

The context is important. At Ferrari, if there is one thing the drivers should be clear about, as Carlos Sainz repeated over and over again during his time at the Scuderia, it is that “Ferrari is above everything and any driver.” And after such a bad season, both had to know that in Mexico, being first and second after the first corners, with a car with very good race pace, it was very difficult for them to be passed throughout the event.

The lowest air density at the altitude of Mexico makes cars suffer a lot in the cooling of all their components, especially the engine. Therefore, all cars need to distance themselves from the car in front of them and this makes overtaking difficult. The two pilots knew it. They had a 1-2 more than possible. But instead, they got into a meaningless fight that handed the race to Verstappen.

In turn 4, Leclerc this time would try it on the outside, at a speed that makes it unclear if he could have made the turn. And Hamilton, on the inside, braked very late and opened his line a lot. The result was that the two leaders, from the same team, left the track. Leclerc, going faster on the outside, seemed to sense what would happen and went straight across the grass to get out first.

And at that moment, Max took advantage of the situation to pass Hamilton. That was key and changed everything. Leclerc could no longer return position because Max was in the middle and he had to accept the penalty that fell to him.

Finally, to the surprise of Verstappen and Hamilton, the penalty was only 5 seconds. And Hamilton complained on the radio that the FIA ​​was “giving” the victory to Charles because he was running in clean air. Although later, Max stole his wallet in the pits.

In the end, Hamilton was able to move up to second place. But that didn’t make a Fréderic Vasseur smile with the fight of egos he saw on the track. At the microphone of ‘Canal + France’, Vasseur exploded against his drivers with much more forceful statements.

Vasseur’s statements about Hamilton and Leclerc

“I think it is a lack of respect towards the brand and towards all the people who work on it, taking into account the effort we make. “It’s not the result we expected, especially when we were in first and second position after the first corner,” he said.

“In Mexico I don’t remember any overtaking decisive for victory in the last 72 years, so it is difficult for me to accept that we finished the race in second and fourth position. We have taken a real step forward in terms of performance, and I think that wasting a victory in this way is difficult to accept,” he added, making it clear that no one should have overtaken them.

“At the moment, I haven’t spoken to them yet,” he added after the race. “We will have time to see each other alone or in a group, but right now I am very angry and I am not going to blame anyone in particular. However, I think the situation is getting out of hand,” he said.

“We must remember that we represent a brand, that we represent the sponsors, that there are two thousand people working behind us. Pilots should not race for themselves, they race for all those people. Tonight or tomorrow morning we can sit down, talk it out, clarify everything and then we will focus directly on Brazil again: the best thing that could happen to us is to be able to race right away.

Tension between Hamilton and Leclerc, for months

The tensions between Leclerc and Hamilton have been coming for months. It’s nothing new. Ferrari did not clarify the situation of both drivers and in fact, Lewis Hamilton He had to go out to reproach his boss for not prioritizing him in the middle of the fight for the title. And he also did it at Ferrari’s home GP, in Monza.

In the past Dutch GP, Lewis got angry when he saw that the team did not ask Leclerc to let him pass despite his better pace and different race strategy. That ended up hurting both of them.because instead of letting Lewis pass, they asked Charles to enter the pits earlier than he should.

And at Monza, Lewis did not hesitate to point out Vasseur and make it clear that the team had to prioritize him because it was closer to fighting for the World Cup. Over there, Lewis had no slippage in his teammate’s classification despite the fact that in theory Charles should have given it to him. And then, In Baku, Lewis gave his teammate a slipstream in qualifyingor, but he complained about being put on the track without anyone in front, thus being left without the slipstream of another car.

Hamilton took advantage of the many internal changes and in the way of working that he had promoted within the team for several months this year, especially after his victory in Barcelona. But everything changed. Sparks fly between its two pilots and no one has been able to put order between them.