Ferrari boss snaps at media after Lewis Hamilton Singapore strategy probed

Fred Vasseur seemed in a slightly snappy mood after Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix, particularly when it came to questions about Lewis Hamilton's tyre strategy.

The seven-time world champion had a rough second half of his race around the streets of Marina Bay, finishing the race on 40+ lap old soft tyres and losing more than two seconds a lap as Kimi Antonelli and the McLarens swallowed him up.

A failure to pit under a virtual safety car with around 25 laps to go appeared to be the major point of diversion in Hamilton's evening, and was understandably the focus of a number of questions to Vasseur post-race.

The Frenchman had to answer more questions than usual on the moment due to an unusual confluence of events - Hamilton being unavailable to the media post-race after feeling unwell and going to the FIA medics, along with the broadcast of the Brit's radio going blank for about six minutes around the VSC.

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That created some uncertainty about when - and whether - Hamilton had been called in under the VSC, whether he received that message in time, and whether him staying on track was a deliberate decision on his part or whether him 'missing' the pit entry was inadvertent.

Journalists also attempted to clarify with Vasseur whether Hamilton had ignored a later instruction to stop when his race engineer Carlo Santi told him that he was six laps on tyres, at which point the team principal appeared to grow fed up with the line of questioning, asking if the media present had hounded McLaren in the same way when Lando Norris knocked Oscar Piastri out of the sprint race the day before.

That exchange is in full below.

Vasseur: "Did you also ask McLaren so many questions yesterday?"

Media: "Yes, certainly."

Vasseur: "We were in positions P2 and P3 on the track..."

Media: "I am just trying to find out exactly what happened."

Vasseur: "It was very clear. We were in P2 and P3 on the track and we called both cars in: 'Guys, you stop under the VSC'. And one of my drivers said: 'No, I'd rather stay on the track and I missed the pit entrance'. Don't blame the team."

Media: I don't blame the team for anything. What I wanted to ask was, was there a second instruction to stop definitively after that VSC call?

Vasseur: "We weren't sure if we could make it to the end."

Media: "But was he called inside again after that, and did he decide not to stop again then?"

Vasseur: "No, no, no, no. We were only monitoring the process."

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