Lewis Hamilton is much more upbeat with his Ferrari team despite several very negative media appearances during the 2025 Formula 1 campaign, claims his boss Fred Vasseur.
The seven-time world champion had arguably his worst season yet, failing to score a podium for the first time in his F1 career en route to sixth in the championship and 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
It was not the debut season Hamilton was hoping for at Ferrari and being the heart-on-sleeve man that he is, on several occasions he let the disappointment show through the media.
From the 32-second interviews on Sky Sports to the one word replies in his written sessions, the 40-year-old clearly didn’t want to be there but Vasseur believes that is all just a front.
Hamilton is instead very motivational behind the scenes and the team boss prefers it that way, as Ferrari searches for its first title since the 2008 constructors’ championship.
“When you are out in Q1, I hope the driver is mega upset with himself and with the team,” said Vasseur, referring to when Hamilton became the first full-time Ferrari driver to suffer three consecutive Q1 exits from Vegas to Abu Dhabi.
“I’m not sure that you, journalist, you prefer to have someone going to the TV pen saying, ‘no, everything is normal, blah, blah, blah’ – all the usual bullshit.
“I respect perfectly the position of the drivers when they have this attitude. Then the most important for me is also to have someone collaborating with the team.
“It’s much better to have someone not speaking in the TV pen and coming back to the debriefing, speaking with the engineers, trying to find solutions and it’s the attitude that Lewis had even when he had a tough moment in the last part of the season and this is putting a positive energy into the team.
“Now, honestly, and I have exactly the same situation with all of you, that when you are jumping on me and I’m going down to the pitwall after a tough race and you have tonnes of questions, sometimes I don’t want to spend too much time to answer the questions.”
Vasseur was particularly understanding of Hamilton’s position considering the huge change that he undertook, having spent 12 record-breaking seasons with Mercedes before Ferrari.
“It was difficult for Lewis,” added the 57-year-old, whose team slipped from second to fourth in the standings after a disappointing year all around at Ferrari.
“I personally underestimate the step. It’s not that we are doing worse or better, it’s that we are just doing differently. It’s not just about the food or the weather, it’s that every single software is different, every single component is different. The people around him, they were different.”
