After 20 years of being powered by Mercedes, Fred Vassuer admits that he underestimated the problem dealing with Lewis Hamilton in switching to Ferrari.
“I personally underestimated the step,” admits the Frenchman. “It isn’t that we’re doing worse or higher, it is that we’re simply doing in another way.
“It isn’t simply concerning the meals or the climate,” he continues, “it is that each single software program is totally different, each single element is totally different, the folks round him, they have been totally different, and in case you are not on the highest of all the things, you allow on the desk a few hundredths of seconds, and at this time with the sphere that now we have… I feel it was in Abu Dhabi in Q2 that you just had one tenth overlaying P5 and P15.
“We weren’t in full management of each single element and bundle,” he admits, “and we misplaced a little bit of the trail of the season like this.”
Trying forward, Vasseur, who has himself been underneath huge private stress this season, admits that enhancements are wanted not solely from Hamilton however from the group.
“It has to come back from all over the place,” he says. “I feel that the mindset of the group and the mindset of the driving force needs to be that allow’s attempt to do a greater job all over the place.
“It isn’t that you’ve got one thing which goes effectively and the remaining goes improper,” he continues. “On the finish of the day, now we have to enhance. Now we have to enhance the collaboration with Lewis. Now we have to enhance on the group. He has to enhance maybe on how he will get the most effective from the automotive that he has.
“It isn’t that when you find yourself three tenths behind somebody, it is not that they’ve the magic bullet or they’ve the element within the automotive with three tenths sooner,” he provides. “Very often, it is that you’ve got ten matters the place you might be three-hundredths of a second slower. One after one, now we have to sort out every level.”
The Frenchman, who labored with the seven-time world champion earlier than he made it to F1, believes that the Briton will profit from the expertise of his first season at Maranello and develop a greater understanding of the group, as was the case along with his Monegasque teammate.
“Truthfully, it is also a matter of mindset, a matter of understanding one another. I am talking about one aspect of the storage.
“On this case, it is as a result of with Charles we all know one another. However on this case, it is extra to know precisely what he wants, what he needs. And for him, the identical for me, to know precisely what he want to do.”
One other facet the place the Frenchman believes Hamilton at present fails is in his negativity when coping with the media. When he isn’t shrugging his shoulders in defeat or answering questions in a way that might make Kimi Raikkonen appear verbose, the Briton means that he not has it, that his time within the sport is over.
“When you find yourself out in Q1, I hope the driving force is mega upset with himself and with the group,” says the Ferrari boss. “I am unsure that you just, journalists, you like to have somebody going to the TV pen saying, ‘no, all the things is regular, blah, blah, blah’… all the standard bullshit.
“I respect completely the place of the drivers after they have this perspective. Crucial for me can be to have somebody collaborating with the group. It is significantly better to have somebody not talking within the TV pen and coming again to the debriefing, talking with the engineers, looking for options and it is the perspective that Lewis had even when he had a troublesome second within the final a part of the season and that is placing a constructive power into the group.
“Now, actually, and I’ve precisely the identical scenario with all of you, that when you find yourself leaping on me and I am happening to the pit-wall after a troublesome race and you’ve got tonnes of questions, typically I do not wish to spend an excessive amount of time to reply the questions.”
