Hamilton under fire from British media, but team boss Vasseur protects him

19:54, 03 Aug

byLudo van Denderen

Silence fell in the small room at Ferrari, as team principal Frederic Vasseur stared at the journalist. “I’m not sure that I understand your question,” said the Frenchman. “Or if I understand it's not a good one.”

Vasseur had been asked by a journalist from a British tabloid whether Ferrari was paying a large sum to Lewis Hamilton (reportedly 50 million dollars, ed.), and whether the team boss thought he got value for money?

Hamilton very critical of himself

Undoubtedly, the question can be traced back to Hamilton's performance over the weekend in Hungary, where he was nowhere to be seen in qualifying and the Grand Prix. Disappointed as the British former champion was with his own performance, he even wondered aloud on Saturday whether Ferrari could better place another driver alongside Charles Leclerc?

When asked about Hamilton's words by GPblog, Vasseur responds in a relativizing manner: “Yes, he's demanding. But I think it's also why he's a seven-time world champion, that he's demanding with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the mechanics, with myself also.”

Lewis Hamilton had a terrible weekend in Hungary

“But first of all, he's very demanding with himself. It was I think always a good motivation for him, and the main reason of performance. And for sure when you are seven-time world champion your teammate is on pole position and you are out in Q2, it's a tough situation,” says Vasseur, who then points out that Hamilton was close to Leclerc in Q1 and Q2 the day before.

Hamilton also doubted at Mercedes

Last season at Mercedes, Hamilton also had moments when he seemed to doubt himself. So there seems to be a pattern, but Vasseur is not worried about it. ”He is frustrated but not demotivated," the Frenchman continues.

"Again, I can perfectly understand the situation. Sometimes you are making comments on what the driver is saying to the car, but if you put the microphone on some other sportsman in football and so, I'm not sure that it would be much better."