Ferrari boss 'hopes' Lewis Hamilton is upset

Ferrari F1 boss Fred Vasseur has insisted that he doesn't have a problem with Lewis Hamilton's miserable media appearances throughout his first year with the team.

The Brit cut a frustrated figure in the media pen at several race weekends this year, not least with borderline monosyllabic answers to questions at the season-ending trio of races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton became the first full-time Ferrari driver to exit qualifying in Q1 in three consecutive races in that run at the end of the year, leading to some supremely bleak conversations with the media.

Vasseur, though, has insisted that he actually sees it as a good sign that the seven-time world champion was taking his poor performances to heart, saying that what mattered was Hamilton's attitude when he got back to the garage.

His collaboration with the team not in question, the beleaguered team principal defended his driver's emotional reactions, and pointed out that the media should be pleased not to just be getting bland platitudes anyway.

Ferrari boss defends Hamilton over interviews

“When you are out in Q1, I hope the driver is mega upset with himself and with the team,” the Frenchman said.

“I'm not sure that you, journalist, you prefer to have someone going to the TV pen saying, ‘no, everything is normal, blah, blah, blah’ - all the usual b******t.

“I respect perfectly the position of the drivers when they have this attitude. Then the most important for me is also to have someone collaborating with the team.

“It's much better to have someone not speaking in the TV pen and coming back to the debriefing, speaking with the engineers, trying to find solutions and it's the attitude that Lewis had even when he had a tough moment in the last part of the season and this is putting a positive energy into the team.

“Now, honestly, and I have exactly the same situation with all of you, that when you are jumping on me and I'm going down to the pitwall after a tough race and you have tons of questions, sometimes I don't want to spend too much time to answer the questions.”

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