Sparks Fly Between Hamilton and Leclerc; Vasseur Sets the Record Straight: “An Hour-Long Call”

Frederic Vasseur spoke to *La Gazzetta dello Sport* ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, scheduled for this weekend at Monza: “We’re trying to approach this GP—the preparation and fine-tuning of the program—as if it were just any other race on the calendar. Obviously, the reality is a bit different, because, as always, we’ll be in the spotlight—both from a sporting and a media perspective. We’ll try to stay in our own bubble, aware of just how demanding the Monza circuit is for our car. We’ve achieved good results at other circuits where power was a limiting factor for us, such as Silverstone and Spa, and we’ll certainly do our best to maximize our result here as well, while always maintaining a realistic approach.”

On the new engine: “It’s a step forward, but developing the engine during the season—with the constraints imposed by the budget and the time available—is truly complex. We’re still making progress, though, even if we don’t expect to catch up to Mercedes at Monza, because the gap is significant. The goal, however, is clear: to keep making progress, focusing on ourselves and on what we know we can still achieve.”

An inevitable question about what happened in the Netherlands: “It’s always difficult to manage champions on the track, because they’re performing at their peak and always want to win. However, it becomes really complicated when you can’t have a clear discussion with your own drivers—and that’s not the case for us. On Monday morning after the race, we had a one-hour call with Hamilton and Leclerc. We clearly explained the strategy and why we made certain decisions. In the end, we took stock of the situation, already focused on Monza. I prefer this kind of approach rather than risking someone bottling it all up, which could ultimately lead to a much worse outcome.”