Ferrari F1 boss appears to fire shot at Carlos Sainz in Lewis Hamilton comments

Lewis Hamilton talking to Frederic Vasseur — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ferrari boss appears to fire shot at Sainz in Hamilton comments

Fred Vasseur has opted to replace the Spaniard with the seven-time champion in 2025

Rhys Thomas

Wednesday 5 June 2024 15:57

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Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has suggested a key reason why Lewis Hamilton could be a stronger teammate for Charles Leclerc than Carlos Sainz.

Despite the Spanish driver performing strongly during his first two years at Ferrari, the Scuderia decided ahead of the 2024 season not to renew his contract and instead sign seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton for 2025.

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Even though he will exit the team at the end of the year, Sainz has continued his good form into 2024, including securing Ferrari's first win of the season in Australia.

It now seems that Sainz will not race at the top of the field in 2025. With Sergio Perez signing a new contract at Red Bull and F2 driver Kimi Antonelli reportedly destined for Mercedes, the Spaniard's remaining options appear to be limited to Williams and Sauber/Audi.

Carlos Sainz took Ferrari's first win of the year in Melbourne

Lewis Hamilton is set to replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in 2025

Vasseur eyes strong Leclerc-Hamilton partnership

Hamilton has been significantly less successful in a Mercedes team which is yet to bounce back to pre-2022 levels of performance, and the Brit seems keen to make the switch to red.

The 39-year-old is yet to finish a grand prix race in the top five, and is 7-1 down to teammate George Russell in their qualifying head-to-head battle, which Hamilton recently suggested was beyond his control.

However, this has certainly not diminished the exciting prospect of Hamilton partnering Leclerc at Maranello for Vasseur.

Quizzed about the possibility that Hamilton and Leclerc could hamper each other's ambitions of points and wins, Vasseur said: “I don't think so, because I think you have a kind of mutual benefit into the team, and we are getting probably more points with two drivers than with one and a half."

Fred Vasseur has been in charge at Ferrari since late 2022

Whether the French boss was taking aim at Sainz with this message is unclear, but he was sure to simultaneously praise his outgoing driver.

“This is a positive move from the performance point of view, and part of our result today is also coming from the fact that we have a good emulation between Carlos and Charles - that they are pushing each other," he added.

“As soon as one is a step down, the other one is there to get results and he is waking up the first one. It's like this if you have a look from the beginning of last year.

“I am really convinced that I prefer having two strong ones [drivers] than not. I am sure that the potential of points for the team with two good drivers is much higher than with one and a half. That's my view.”