Mar.28 (GMM) Frederic Vasseur has turned down a chance to “choose” Method 1 rival Purple Bull for dumping Liam Lawson after simply two grands prix.
As we speak, the Frenchman leads Ferrari’s iconic F1 workforce, however he’s additionally well-known for his days in junior formulation administration – serving to to develop future stars like Lewis Hamilton and lots of others.
However when requested if he would ever drop a driver after two races, Vasseur informed L’Equipe: “This can be a typical Purple Bull story, however you haven’t any thought how tough it’s to evaluate the processes which can be taking place in a workforce.
“We don’t know what’s happening there and what made them take that call. There could possibly be billions of causes for that, identified solely to the workforce and the person driver. And typically even the driving force doesn’t know them.
“So I’d quite not remark,” Vasseur added. “I in all probability really feel that it’s too harsh to make such choices after solely two races. However on the identical time, we should not have even 10 % of the knowledge, so it’s higher to not attempt to choose anybody.
“I hate it when folks attempt to choose us, so I cannot choose others.”
Privately, Vasseur could also be thanking Purple Bull for taking the main focus off Ferrari within the wake of the Chinese language GP – the place each crimson automobiles had been disqualified for technical infringements.
Vasseur admits Ferrari was too “aggressive” with its weight and ground put on settings and choices, however former driver Rene Arnoux defended the Maranello primarily based workforce.
“Ferrari wasn’t making an attempt to cheat,” he informed La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I categorically rule that out.
“If (Charles) Leclerc’s automobile had been ten kilos too mild, or if Hamilton’s automobile had been in blatant violation, then okay, we’d should query that. However this was a matter of nuance – a random anomaly.”
Others, nonetheless, criticise Ferrari for hyping up Hamilton’s arrival to stratospheric heights, solely to finally fail to ship.
“Folks say ‘Ah, you made quite a lot of noise with Lewis this winter’ – however no,” Vasseur hits again. “It was the press who made quite a lot of noise. We didn’t ask for something. We took a photograph. We didn’t even do an interview. We didn’t even do the launch in Maranello.”
One other results of the Hamilton mania is that Leclerc has been utterly overshadowed.
“He’s much less within the highlight, it’s true,” Vasseur mentioned. “However that offers him extra time for himself, to do different issues, to be together with his engineers. So there may be some good on this state of affairs.
“There’ll maybe be a bit frustration, a bit jealousy, however I feel Charles is clever sufficient to know the state of affairs and see the optimistic facet of all of this. He can commit 100% to attaining the sporting goal.”
