‘Unbearable’ Lewis Hamilton ‘rage’ under the spotlight as Fred Vasseur responds
Credit: Antoine Truchet
Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, has insisted that he does not pay attention to the comments of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the TV pen and over team radio.
It comes after Hamilton admitted at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that he has become consumed by “an unbearable amount of anger and rage.”
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur responds to Lewis Hamilton ‘anger and rage’
Hamilton endured a disastrous first season with Ferrari in F1 2025, failing to register a podium finish across a season for the first time in his career.
The seven-time world champion ended the season 86 points behind teammate Leclerc having won just twice – both with Mercedes in 2024 – across F1’s ground-effect era.
Hamilton finished the season with four consecutive Q1 eliminations, failing to progress from the first stage of qualifying after the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where he became the first Ferrari driver to qualify last on pure pace since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
Speaking after his Q1 exit, Hamilton told television crews: “I don’t have the words to describe the feeling that I have inside.
“An unbearable amount of anger and rage. There’s not really much I can say about it.”
Hamilton’s comments came at the end of a season in which he had a number of heated exchanges with his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, over team radio.
John Elkann, the Ferrari chairman, last month expressed frustration with Hamilton and Leclerc criticising the team in public, urging the pair to “focus on driving” and “talk less.”
Vasseur himself criticised Hamilton’s “extreme reactions” in the media earlier this year, claiming “the message he sends out only makes things worse” after a poor result.
Asked about Hamilton’s latest comments in Abu Dhabi, however, the Ferrari team boss insisted that he does not listen to what his drivers say in the heat of the moment.
And he pointed to Leclerc’s ability to channel his frustration into a “positive dynamic” as evidence that Hamilton’s criticism is rooted in his desire for the team to “do a better job.”
Vasseur told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “I don’t pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen, honestly, or the reaction that sometimes they have on the microphone in the car on the radio.
“In the TV pen, they are jumping out of the car five minutes after the session.
“Sometimes they have bad results for a couple of hundredths and you’re asking them questions.
“I can understand that sometimes the guy is a bit emotional and the only thing you want is to go back to the engineering office and to discuss with the engineers to understand why.
“Honestly, most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results.
“The fact that they are emotional sometimes on the radio and it depends of the guy.
“All of you know perfectly Charles is always a bit [heavy with] criticism with him and with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it’s always was a positive dynamic.
“I’ve known Charles for 16 years and he was always like this.
“He was always complaining about everything, but it’s a positive dynamic that we are there just to do a better job.
“And it doesn’t matter if you are P4, P3, P1. The DNA is to do a better job.
“I accept this perfectly and most important for me is that they keep the same approach into the debriefing to try to get better car, a better team, a better everything.”
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Speaking after the season finale, Hamilton admitted that he is looking forward to disconnecting from F1 during the winter break.
He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “At the moment, I’m only looking forward to the break.
“And just to disconnect or not speak to anyone. No one will be able to get hold of me this winter.
“I won’t have my phone with me. I’m looking forward to a complete unplug from the matrix.
“I’ve generally always had it around, but this time it’s going in the freaking bin.”
Asked how long his break will ask with the first test of F1 2026 little more than a month away, Hamilton added: “I’ll find out when I do it.
“But I can’t wait to get away from all this. Every week, photoshoots and all that kind of stuff.
“That’s the thing I look forward to one day – not having to do it all.”
Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher
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