Fred Vasseur says Ferrari underestimated Lewis Hamilton’s first-year adjustment

Ferrari squad main Fred Vasseur says helium misread however hard Lewis Hamilton’s archetypal play with the Scuderia would be, and helium thinks the hole for 2026 volition travel from tightening tiny details alternatively than hunting for 1 occurrence upgrade. Vasseur insists Hamilton often missed Leclerc by slim margins, and helium says those tiny losses piled up crossed a play that slipped distant successful increments daily.

Hamilton joined from Mercedes astatine the commencement of the year, expecting to combat for victories. The world turned into what the seven-time champion called a "nightmare." He went a afloat play without a podium for the archetypal clip successful his 19-year vocation and was outqualified 19 times to 5 by Charles Leclerc.

A bigger accommodation than expected

Vasseur said the daze was not conscionable cultural. "I personally underestimated the step. It's not that we are doing worse oregon better, it's that we are conscionable doing differently," helium said, describing a determination that touched everything from bundle to parts to the radical successful Hamilton’s orbit.

He besides pointed to however unforgiving modern qualifying has become, wherever tiny gaps tin divided a large pack. In that context, missed mentation and imperfect execution tin crook into mislaid rows connected the grid, adjacent erstwhile the underlying gait is close.

Many tiny losses, 1 shared target

Vasseur believes Hamilton and Ferrari tin unlock much by knowing each other’s needs, and helium framed the task arsenic collaborative. "I deliberation it has to travel from everywhere," helium said, adding that some the squad and the operator request the mindset of doing “a amended occupation everywhere.”

He argued the shortage to Leclerc is often scattered crossed aggregate areas. "Quite often, it's that you person 10 topics wherever you are 3 hundredths of a 2nd slower. One aft one, we person to tackle each point," Vasseur said.

Leclerc’s familiarity with Ferrari’s processes is baked in, portion Hamilton is inactive learning what the car wants and however the store operates connected contention weekends. Ferrari’s stake is that closing those gaps—topic by topic—will crook a hard archetypal twelvemonth into a stronger level successful 2026.