‘Verstappen could do it’ – Ferrari’s telling response to ‘negativity’ in ‘tough’ season

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur agreed with Lewis Hamilton that negativity towards Ferrari as it nears a winless campaign is “not helping” the team.

Ferrari entered the F1 2025 championship tipped to be one of the teams to beat with an SF-25 that was, according to reports from Italy, half a second faster than its predecessor, and Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel.

Lewis Hamilton: “So there’s a huge effect on lots of people.”

The seven-time World Champion joined Ferrari in a fairytale storyline; F1’s most successful driver teaming up with the sport’s most iconic team with the dream of breaking Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher’s record of seven World titles.

The fairytale soon became a nightmare.

23 grands prix into his Ferrari career, Hamilton has yet to claim a grand prix podium, never mind a race win. Sixth in the championship on 152 points, he’s 78 shy of his teammate Charles Leclerc’s tally.

That, along with his own comments calling it his “worst” season ever in Formula 1 and one that he is “looking forward to it ending”, have made headlines around the world.

Hamilton says the negative headlines have not helped Ferrari.

“The negativity that’s constantly within the media and everything like that, that affects them,” Hamilton said.

“They get home to their wives and their wives say ‘they’ve been saying this about where you work’, and I’m sure that’s tough, and the kids, and all those things.

“So there’s a huge effect on lots of people.”

The team has also had to deal with rumours that Vasseur was on the verge of being fired and that Charles Leclerc wanted to quit.

Vasseur was asked about Hamilton’s comment after the Qatar Grand Prix where Ferrari scored just four points on Sunday night as Leclerc brought his SF-25 home in eighth place with Hamilton P11.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

“For sure, it’s not helping,” Vasseur told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media after the Qatar race. “But it’s our job that you do good results.

“Quite often you are world champion, you are in a tough session, you are nowhere, but we as a team, we have to stay in our bubble and to try to get the best from what we have.

“For sure you have ups and downs, for sure you have to deal with this kind of situation.”

After all, he continued, looking over at Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who went from 104 points down in the championship to just 12 points heading into the season finale, other teams can do it.

“Max was able to do it,” the Frenchman added. “He was a P10 in qualy in Budapest. He was P11 in the race. And then he started to win races.

“It means that you can come back. And as a team, we have to try to understand what we did wrong this weekend.

“I think, from my understanding so far, it’s linked to the tyre pressure, the prescription that we were a bit like on a balloon all weekend.

“We struggled to deal with but it’s the same for everybody, it means that we did a worse job than the others.”

Ferrari has one more shot at a first win this season in Abu Dhabi, however, the Italian team will finish the campaign fourth in the championship as it has 382 points to Red Bull’s 426 with only 43 still in play.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Mat Coch

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