Fred Vasseur: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari ‘Stupidly’ Misjudged Challenges

Formula 1 is in the midst of its summer break, and it couldn't have come sooner for Lewis Hamilton and the folks at Ferrari.

Despite all the fanfare surrounding the seven-time champion making the jump to the sport's most famous team, the results just haven't been there. The Scuderia is 301 points behind championship leaders McLaren, while Mercedes is right on their heels in P3, just 24 points back.

Hamilton is 32 points behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, but has struggled in qualifying this season, having lost out to his teammate in all but 5 races this season, one of which was a Sprint Race. 

In Hungary, the final race weekend before the summer break, Hamilton called himself "useless" after getting eliminated in Q2 at a track he had been dominant at for much of his career.

Now, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is talking about how he and Hamilton may have both underestimated just how difficult it would be for them to find success as a team.

"Lewis and I, we collectively, probably underestimated the change of environment, and the fact that he spent, for me, 20 years in the same team," Vasseur told The Race. "McLaren was Mercedes, and then he moved to Mercedes: an English team [based in Brackley], same engine guys, that same culture, and so on.

"So he spent 2006 to 2024, 18 years, in this environment, and then he arrived at Ferrari. And we were stupidly expecting that he will have everything under control."

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur (right) says he and Lewis Hamilton both ‘stupidly’ thought the seven-time champ's transition to Ferrari would be smooth from the start. (Getty Images)

There's truth to this. Vasseur mentioned how "McLaren was Mercedes" about how McLaren partnered with Mercedes as their engine supplier before the German automaker returned to the grid in 2010. So, when Lewis moved to the Silver Arrows in 2013, there wouldn't have been nearly as much culture shock as he found moving to Ferrari, a team based in Italy and completely different from any other he had raced with in Formula 1.

"He's not the guy who changed (teams) every two years," Vasseur said. "You have guys on the grid that, if you have a look (at) Carlos (Sainz, former Ferrari driver), for example, he did Toro Rosso, Renault, McLaren, us and Williams in eight years. He changed four times. He's used to dealing with this. Lewis was not the case."

I think we all underestimated how hard this would be, but Ferrari is committed to the long haul. Despite rumors that he was on the hot seat, Vasseur signed a multi-year extension with Ferrari before the break.

We'll see how the Scuderia runs when the tail end of the season gets underway with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31.