Frederic Vasseur Becomes Candid on Lewis Hamilton’s “Personal Baggage” as Ferrari Boss Sets Tone for 2025
Is Ferrari Ready To Handle The Drama That Comes With A Superstar Like Lewis Hamilton?
“No guts, no glory, no legend, no story” – A phrase that Ferrari is reviving in modern F1. Shaking their driver lineup for 2025, the Frederic Vasseur-led team has taken a somewhat calculated risk, but the future remains unpredictable. In Lewis Hamilton, they get F1’s best driver ever, but the 7-time champion has never worked for a non-British team. As he described it, going from working with “calm and composed” Englishmen to “emotional” Italians, a daunting cultural change awaits him. However, according to Frederic Vasseur, such differences create a hub for brilliance.
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Just a few days ago, the Ferrari TP highlighted how his future driver’s “great experience” will impact them next year. Championship-winning experience is exactly what the Maranello outfit is in dire need of. Charles Leclerc is championship material, but yet to have his stars aligned. When Hamilton dons the Scarlet Red next year, Leclerc might be pushed farther away from his dream. But from a team perspective, the 7-time champion’s input could help break their 17-year-old championship curse.
“One thing that is valid for Lewis, but also for the engineers, is that it is important to have a cultural mix, with people from different backgrounds, experiences, and education,” Vasseur told FormulaPassion, addressing their 2025 expectations. Elaborating on their newest hire, the Frenchman added, “Hamilton brings his own personal baggage. In addition to being a seven-time world champion, he has a great deal of experience working with top teams, such as McLaren and Mercedes. I also know his qualities and I am sure that he will contribute to the evolution of the team. It is not just a question of being fast on the track, but also of motivating and pushing the team.”
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Vasseur and Hamilton have previously worked together in 2006. The Frenchman was the boss of the ART Grand Prix team, driving for whom the Briton won the GP2 (now F2) championship. But at the pinnacle of motorsport, it’ll be an entirely new experience with the stakes at their peak. Will an initially skeptical Hamilton fit in Ferrari’s new world?
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Lewis Hamilton’s past problems with Ferrari’s lack of diversity & accountability
Ferrari is F1’s oldest team and also the most successful. But unlike other teams, who answer to a parent company or billionaire owner, they have to answer to Italy in its entirety. Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner made this difference very clear last year. Calling Ferrari a “national team”, he said, “You know, it’s an Italian institute and there’s too many probably people at the top end that everybody has an input and has a say from the outside looking in.”
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Though Lewis Hamilton will face the increased pressure of fulfilling a new nation’s dream next year, his concerns are different. In 2020, when he voiced support for ‘end racism’, F1 and Mercedes joined him, but other teams, including Ferrari, didn’t. He said, “If you look at Ferrari who have thousands of people working with them, I’ve heard no word of Ferrari saying that they hold themselves accountable and this is what they’re going to do for the future.”
3 years later, the Briton had a similar issue with Ferrari on a pressing matter. Speaking on Jay Shetty’s podcast, Hamilton said, “There’s still no diversity at Ferrari. I mean, hardly any.” At Mercedes, he played a pivotal role in promoting diversity and they changed for the better. Lewis added, “When I go back to my team, to the factory, normally in our marketing department, wasn’t very diverse initially. I walked in after the pandemic and I started seeing a more diverse group of people. I was really quite emotional because I was like ‘Oh my god, I’m starting to see change.’”
via Reuters
Come 2024, when the contract was signed anyway, Ferrari immediately showed change. Chairman John Elkann promised a $400 million push into Hamilton’s projects and charitable foundations such as Mission 44 and the Hamilton Commission. The 7-time champion also revealed how he made it a “priority” to converse with Elkann about work to be done on the diversity front. Ferrari has more than a few moving pieces to be steadied before 2025, excluding their car.
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Can Hamilton create history with F1’s biggest brand before he retires? What do you think? Share in the comments below.
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Written By
Yash Kotak
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Yash is an F1 writer at EssentiallySports. He blends his passion for writing and love for Formula 1 by writing captivating stories that our readers find engaging and insightful. He found the intriguingly complex world of Formula 1 when he watched the ‘INSIDE TRACKS’ episode covering the 2018 German Grand Prix.
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Edited By
Sanchari Bhaduri
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