Lewis Hamilton has been heavily linked with a move to Ferrari this summer, but Fred Vasseur’s refusal to pin blame on the crew and engineers could dissuade the legendary Briton from making the switch to Maranello.
Earlier this summer QN Motori suggested Hamilton had been personally contacted on two separate occasions by Ferrari president John Elkann and team principal Vasseur with the duo attempting to lure the seven-time world champion to Maranello for the 2024 season and beyond.
However, Mercedes are also pushing to secure Hamilton’s signature with the Brackley-based team hoping to extend their decade-old partnership with the 38-year-old for another couple of years at a minimum.
Unfortunately for Ferrari, Vasseur’s decisions to back the Ferrari team over driver Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz this season could play a role in deciding Hamilton’s next move as he enters the twilight years of his glittering F1 career.
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Hamilton has previously made it clear that he wants race engineers to be held accountable if mistakes are made – something that isn’t happening at Ferrari right now. Speaking to the BBC Chequered Flag podcast earlier this season, Hamilton said: “I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need. And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’.”
After Hamilton stressed the importance of accountability, Mercedes confirmed tough conversations were held with members of the team. In a team statement, they said: “Inside the team, we talk about having the courage to fail, the character to be accountable and the strength to see failure as an opportunity.
“We have been open and searingly honest about where we find ourselves. And we are working urgently and calmly to build our recovery plan.”
Meanwhile, in the Ferrari camp, Vasseur has refused to blame the team’s pit crew and strategists following Leclerc’s calamitous pit stop during the opening stages of Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.
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Speaking after the race, Vasseur explained: “It was a very late call, but I think it was still the right decision because we were in a much better position than before even with the six or seven seconds we lost in the pit lane.”
In fact, instead of looking inwards to issue blame for some of Ferrari’s blunders this season, Vasseur had previously highlighted some of the shortcomings in Leclerc’s personality as a driver in a move that will unlikely endear him to Hamilton.
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport earlier this summer, Vasseur explained: “As a character Leclerc is impulsive, if something doesn’t go well he doesn’t hold back. However, for his and the team’s sake, sometimes it is better to calm down before talking.
“In the heat of the moment, you don’t have all the information you need to form a definitive judgement and in front of an open microphone, it is better to take your time. He is still very fast, but this year if you look at qualifying Carlos has been more up to it than in the past.”
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