Ferrari Principal defends Miami GP -Team orders after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Vent Frustration | F1 News

Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur believes that his team “despite Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclercers express their frustration during the Miami Grand Prix.

Hamilton asked to visit teammate Leclerc during the middle of the race while trying to catch Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli for the sixth, but was not immediately let through.

He became more and more frustrated before Leclerc stood aside after a few laps, but could not pull away from his medium -sized tires.

The sevenfold world champion then stood back Leclerc and asked sarcastically if he should also let the Williams of Carlos Sainz through, with the Ferrari couple eventually finished seventh and eighth.

Hamilton revealed that he told the Ferrari team head Vasseur that he was not “so sensitive” as he spoke to him after the race, and said he would not apologize for “being a hunter.”

Vasseur told Sky Sports F1: “I can understand the frustration of the boys in the cars, but in the end it was well done because Lewis was behind Charles, with a softer compound, we let him go and according to our internal rules in the team we exchanged at the end.

“We gave Lewis the opportunity to go for Charles because it was impossible to catch up between them if we didn’t let them go and it was an opportunity for Lewis to catch Antonelli. I think we did well.”

Under the spicy radio exchanges, Hamilton raised the Chinese Grand Prix when he moved to Leclerc, and at one point he said, “Have a tea break while you are busy, come on!”

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

“We ask them to let their teammate go. It is not easy, it is never easy. We took the responsibility to do it because it is the team’s policy.

“We first race for Ferrari. To be honest, I think we as a team did well. Again, we can claim that it would have been better to do it half a round for or a half lap later.

“But if you are in the well wall, you have to understand whether the car is lagging behind, faster because of Drs or not. It is not an easy call. It is always much easier to do it two hours later.

“We asked them to do it. They did it. Now that 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, the Motorsport Championship under F1.

Vasseur, who is in his third season as a Ferrari team director, repeated that he “has no problem” with Sunday’s team order conflict or the reaction of his drivers.

“He [Hamilton] Can trust me, I can trust him. Same with Charles, “he said.

“If I have to make a decision, I make a decision for Ferrari with the element you have [to do it] Live.

“It is not that you have 30 minutes to view the data. You must decide which is the fastest track, if it comes from the drs or not.

“Maybe a bit slow, but it cost us one round or a half and a half to make a decision. You can always feel that you have to exchange in the next corner when you are behind.

“And if you are in front, you say:” Please see if it’s not the DRS effect. “I think it was the opposite situation 10 laps later.”

Where are Ferrari in the pecking order?

Vasseur wanted to emphasize that the “bigger story” Ferrari’s lack of pace was because they finished almost a minute behind Race winner Oscar Piastri.

McLaren’s One-Two vs Ferrari’s seventh and eighth has set them 152 points for the Italian team after only six events.

Leclerc, in the seventh, was in third place for 20 seconds behind George Russell, but Vasseur believes that Ferrari had the pace of Mercedes and Red Bull in Race -Trim and had to work on their performance in qualifying with new tires.

“The pace in Miami is difficult if you are stuck in the peloton. The pace probably matched 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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