Vasseur lashes out at Hamilton and Leclerc: “Respect for Ferrari”
Fred Vasseur makes no secret of his anger following the Mexican Grand Prix, which crowned Kimi Antonelli the Formula 1 world champion. The Ferrari team principal is particularly bitter about what happened on the first lap, when the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Turn 1 ended up derailing the Prancing Horse’s hopes for victory. An internal battle that had serious consequences for the Maranello team’s result, in a race where the Scuderia had managed to secure the top two positions when the lights went out.
After the customary congratulations to the new world champion and Mercedes, Vasseur expressed his deep disappointment: “Congratulations to Kimi and Mercedes. Kimi has done a fantastic job since the first race of the season, and this title is absolutely well-deserved. For our part, today’s result is very hard to swallow, because we’ve worked incredibly hard, and in the last few races, we’ve taken a huge step forward in terms of pure performance. Even today, once again, as a team we scored more points than our direct rivals.”
The harshest part of his remarks, however, concerned the incident between the two Ferrari drivers. The Frenchman called for greater respect for the team and for everyone who works at Maranello: “It was a difficult race, and after what happened today on the first lap, I expect everyone to show greater respect for the brand, the team, our partners, and, above all, for the two thousand people who work for us back home and put incredible effort into what they do, working day and night in the factory to improve the car and bring updates to the track. For this reason, losing a victory this way is truly hard to accept.”
Vasseur then returned to the dynamics of the start, emphasizing that Ferrari had an important opportunity to capitalize on: “Here in Mexico, we were first and second going into Turn 1, and when you find yourself in a situation like that, you have to make the most of the opportunity.” A clear stance, suggesting that the incident will be the subject of an internal review. “We’ll discuss what happened within the team and make sure everything is clear for the future,” added the team principal, already looking ahead to the next race on the calendar.
