Lewis Hamilton revealed that he had asked Fred Vasseur, director of the Ferrari team, to calm down during a post-race discussion at the Miami Grand Prix.
The seven -time world champion Hamilton launched a series of virulent spikes to his Ferrari team by Radio, in a context of confusion about team instructions, before signing a new disappointing result during the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton finished eighth behind his teammate Charles Leclerc after the two men were invited twice to exchange their positions while trying – without success – to catch up with the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli for the sixth place, while the Italian stable continued his start to the 2025 disappointing season.
The Briton felt increasing frustration towards Ferrari throughout the race. He was first irritated by the time it took the team to say to Leclerc, who was in hard tires, to let him pass, before Ferrari’s decision to reversed the positions at the end of the race again – despite the fact that Hamilton puts faster mediums – does not irritate it.
“Fred came to my room,” Hamilton revealed. “I just put my hand on his shoulder and said to him: ‘Dude, calm down. Don’t be so likely’.”
“I could have said things very worse on the radio. We hear things that others have said in the past, sometimes with sarcasm. Listen, we must understand that we are under enormous pressure in the car.”
“We never hear the quieter messages in the fire of the action. And yes, it was good to discuss. We thought we were going to have to digest …”
Hamilton told Ferrari to “Take a break as long as we are there”while they were thinking about an exchange of positions.
He also asked Ferrari with sarcasm if they wanted him to pass Carlos Sainz (Williams) after being informed of the gap between him from the pilot he replaced.
When asked if the comments were simply “Under emotion”Hamilton replied: “It was not even anger. It was not the type to be blinded or anything like.”
“It’s the type ‘make a decision!’ You are sitting on the chair, you have everything in front of you, make the decision, quickly.
“Finally, that’s for sure, I don’t know what you are going to write, or if I was disrespectful or anything, honestly, I don’t feel like having been like that. I’m sure there are sensitivities. I am not likely. And you have to eliminate all these sensitivities within the team.”
“I said to myself, go guys, I want to save space. I still have a sacred fire. I felt a bit of that going up. I’m not going to apologize for being a fighter. I’m not going to apologize for wanting to do it again. I know that this is all the members of the team.”
“And I sincerely believe that once we have solved certain problems of the car, we will be back in the race with the Mercedes and the Red Bull. It cannot happen quickly enough.”
“We will try something different for the next race. We will continue to work on the processes. I can’t wait to fight for a podium, that would be good.”
At his side, Vasseur wanted to put the situation into perspective, saying that he understood the frustration of Hamilton perfectly.
“I had a discussion with Lewis and I fully understand his frustration. They are champions, they want to win races. We ask them to let a pilot go. It’s not easy. And I have never seen any other team doing this. This is why we took responsibility for doing so. Because it is the team’s policy. We run first for Ferrari and, honestly, I think we have a good job.”
“You could say that it would have been better to make it a front or a U-turn afterwards. But when you are on the wall of the stands and it is necessary to determine if the car behind is faster than that in front, just because of the DRS or not, it is not an easy decision.”
“It’s always much easier to do it two hours later. We asked them to do it, and they did it. Now, frustration at the wheel, I understand it perfectly. We discussed and it was much more relaxed.”
“It’s not the story of the day. We made 7th and 8th. I would be much more inclined to explain why we finished a minute behind McLaren than that.”
