Fred Vasseur was ‘a bit scared’ as Ferrari F1 drivers battled in Chinese GP
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had a nearly race-long battle at Shanghai, and were successfully trusted not to collide by Ferrari team boss Vasseur
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has admitted to having been “a bit scared” as his drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, battled throughout Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton briefly led the race on lap one before being overtaken by polesitter Kimi Antonelli; the Ferraris fought George Russell for second place in the first few laps and then over 15 laps following the safety car intervention, with the Mercedes man comfortably outpacing them in the second half of the race.
Hamilton and Leclerc were left to battle it out for the third spot on the podium, which they did for most of the race – hence a suboptimal pace relative to Russell late on – with F1’s new power unit rules providing entertaining racing due to energy management.
The seven-time world champion eventually took a decisive advantage on lap 40 and increased the gap to 3.6 seconds under the chequered flag.
“I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure if you ask the team they will reply the same, but I really enjoyed it,” Leclerc commented.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
He’s not wrong in the scuffle potentially being hair-raising for the team. “I have to be honest, sometimes you are a bit scared,” Vasseur admitted to Sky Germany, “but I trust them that they were in control and that something can happen.
“But on the other hand, it's also very difficult as a team to freeze the positions. I think they are professional and I really enjoyed this.”
Like team-mate Hamilton, who branded the Chinese GP as one of his most enjoyable F1 races ever, Leclerc thoroughly relished the wheel-to-wheel action.
“Honestly, these cars, for races, it's actually quite fun,” he said. “And, yeah, it was just a cool race.
“I think it was a very fair, hard but fair battle, which was nice. And then, there's also a lot of tactics from inside the cockpit, that is really cool.
“There was obviously this battle for who will get the overtake in the last corner, and we both braked very early, and the way you deploy and manage the energy. So, it was a fun race.”
The Monegasque owned up to having been outperformed fair and square by Hamilton, who scored his maiden Ferrari podium.
“At the end of the day, Lewis was just stronger and I'm happy for his podium,” he said. “I'm, of course, disappointed for losing out on the podium on my side, but I know I've given everything, and at the end of the day, Lewis was just stronger this weekend.”
Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov
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