Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc free to criticise Ferrari F1 team, says Fred Vasseur

Ferrari Formula 1 boss Fred Vasseur is unfazed by his drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton being publicly critical of the squad even though it irked John Elkann. 

The 2025 F1 campaign was highly disappointing for the Scuderia, as it failed to win a grand prix and dropped to fourth in the championship having lost the 2024 title to McLaren on the final day. 

Leclerc and Hamilton, who finished fifth and sixth in the drivers’ standings, have therefore often cut very frustrated figures in post-session interviews; at the Brazilian Grand Prix, for example, the seven-time world champion said “it’s a nightmare” following a double DNF.

But such constant negativity received criticism from Ferrari chairman Elkann, who claimed the pair need “to focus on driving and talk less” in a comment that prompted widespread debate.

Yet Vasseur has little interest in what the drivers say publicly, because to him what matters are the interactions behind the scenes. 

“I don't pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen,” said Vasseur, after Ferrari finished fourth and eighth at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari

Photo by: Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images

“The 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 on the guys... all of you know Charles. [He] is always a bit of critical with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it's always with a positive dynamic.

“I know Charles for 10 years, 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.

“It doesn't matter if you are P4, P3, P1. The DNA is to do a better job. I accept this perfectly and the most important [thing] for me is that they keep the same approach to the debriefing. To try to get a better car, a better team, a better everything and it's like this that we will improve.”

Vasseur instead went as far as saying that he actually encourages his drivers to be critical of the team, because that is simply how Ferrari returns to the top when the new regulations come in next year.  

“I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job,” he added. “The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Always that I'm not there to have [drivers telling me] 'we are doing a good job on this and this and this'.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Erik Junius

“But their DNA and my DNA is to try to push the team to do a better job. It means, they have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, when it's not Lewis, it's Charles, it's both of them. They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit. Everywhere, on every single area and for sure, we can improve and we can improve everywhere.

“But last year, we were fighting until the last corner and the reaction was exactly the same. And Charles said, ‘OK guys, we have to improve on every single area. The simulator, the set-up, the aero’.

“This is the DNA of their job and the DNA of our sport. I'm not shocked at all when they are coming to me and say, Fred, we have to improve on this, this, this, this, this because it's what we are asking them to do.”