{"id":33468,"date":"2025-05-05T12:36:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=33468"},"modified":"2025-05-05T12:39:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:39:27","slug":"vasseur-ferrari-did-a-good-job-handling-hamilton-leclerc-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/05\/vasseur-ferrari-did-a-good-job-handling-hamilton-leclerc-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"Vasseur: Ferrari “did a good job” handling Hamilton, Leclerc swap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur insists that the swaps between Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Charles Leclerc<\/a> in Miami were handled well.<\/p>\n

Vasseur argued that Hamilton was given a fair chance to catch Antonelli, thanks to the team’s team orders.<\/p>\n

Despite the criticisms of how Ferrari handled the situation, the Frenchman seems convinced it was a well orchestrated sequence.<\/p>\n

Ferrari made the right calls in Miami, says Vasseur<\/h2>\n

Possibly above all else, Fred Vasseur is well known for his optimism.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari team principal has been positive about the Maranello outfit’s potential since joining in 2023, a perspective that was certainly vindicated last year.<\/p>\n

Not only did the Scuderia fight for the Championship last year, but they did so despite a failed update package in Spain.<\/p>\n

Vasseur<\/a> deserves huge credit for overseeing the team’s fast recovery, which arrived via the upgrades brought to Monza.<\/p>\n

Because of this, there was immense optimism at Ferrari heading into 2025.<\/p>\n

The team’s failure to carry their momentum from last year has only intensified the frustrations about the SF-25.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Last weekend’s Miami GP, where Ferrari lacked pace and failed to communicate effectively, has further fuelled the scepticism about their project.<\/p>\n

In the face of this negativity, Fred Vasseur argues that Hamilton and Leclerc’s swaps were well-managed:<\/p>\n

“I can understand the frustration of the guys in the car,” he told Sky Sports.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But at the end, it was well executed.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Because Lewis was behind Charles, he was with the softer compound, we let him go.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Then… we swapped back at the end. I think we let the chance for Lewis to go in front of Charles.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It was impossible to overtake between them if we don’t let them go [and swap].<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think it was the opportunity for Lewis to catch up Antonelli<\/a>, and I think we did a good job.<\/em><\/p>\n

“You need to understand in this situation – If you are faster than the car in front of you because you have DRS, or because you have the pace.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We took one lap to take a decision, and then one lap to apply the decision.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leclerc and Hamilton grow frustrated<\/h4>\n

For different reasons, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton only have limited patience for Ferrari’s current performance.<\/p>\n

From Leclerc’s perspective, as he enters a 7th year with the team, another year without a title-contending car is difficult to swallow.<\/p>\n

At some stage, the Monegasque must ask himself whether the Italian outfit can deliver a car worthy of a Championship.<\/p>\n

The 2026 regulations<\/a> will be pivotal in showing Leclerc whether winning a title with Ferrari is feasible.<\/p>\n

From Hamilton’s perspective, his move away from Mercedes – who are favourites to produce the best 2026 engines – was intended to help him secure an eighth world title.<\/p>\n

Battling with Williams<\/a> certainly wasn’t his expectation heading into 2025.<\/p>\n

Unless the SF-25 can improve substantially, there will be extraordinary pressure on Ferrari to deliver in 2026.<\/p>\n

Irrespective of how you dissect the situation, there are a combination of short and medium-term stressors for the Scuderia to overcome.<\/p>\n

Now more than ever, the leadership of Fred Vasseur will be tested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur insists that the swaps between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Miami were handled well. Vasseur argued that Hamilton was given a fair chance to catch Antonelli, thanks to the team’s team orders. Despite the criticisms of how Ferrari handled the situation, the Frenchman seems convinced it was a well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":33469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,84,2481],"class_list":["post-33468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-ferrari","tag-sf-25"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33468"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33472,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33468\/revisions\/33472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}