After 20 years of being powered by Mercedes, Fred Vassuer admits that he underestimated the problem going through 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 otherwise.
“It isn’t simply in regards to the meals or the climate,” he continues, “it is that each single software program is totally different, each single element is totally different, the individuals round him, they have been totally different, and in case you are not on the highest of the whole lot, you allow on the desk a few hundredths of seconds, and at present with the sector that we’ve got… I believe 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 package deal,” he admits, “and we misplaced a little bit of the trail of the season like this.”
Trying forward, Vasseur, who has himself been beneath huge private stress this season, admits that enhancements are wanted not solely from Hamilton however from the group.
“It has to return from in all places,” he says. “I believe that the mindset of the group and the mindset of the motive force needs to be that allow’s attempt to do a greater job in all places.
“It isn’t that you’ve one thing which goes properly and the remainder goes unsuitable,” he continues. “On the finish of the day, we’ve got to enhance. We now have to enhance the collaboration with Lewis. We now have to enhance on the group. He has to enhance maybe on how he will get the perfect from the automotive that he has.
“It isn’t that if 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 ten subjects the place you’re three-hundredths of a second slower. One after one, we’ve got 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 facet 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 grasp precisely what he wants, what he needs. And for him, the identical for me, to grasp precisely what he want to do.”
One other facet the place the Frenchman believes Hamilton at the moment fails is in his negativity when coping with the media. When he is not shrugging his shoulders in defeat or answering questions in a fashion that may make Kimi Raikkonen appear verbose, the Briton means that he now not has it, that his time within the sport is over.
“When you’re out in Q1, I hope the motive force is mega upset with himself and with the group,” says the Ferrari boss. “I am unsure that you just, journalists, you favor to have somebody going to the TV pen saying, ‘no, the whole lot is regular, blah, blah, blah’… all the same old bullshit.
“I respect completely the place of the drivers after they have this perspective. Crucial for me can also be to have somebody collaborating with the group. It is a lot 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 tricky second within the final a part of the season and that is placing a optimistic vitality into the group.
“Now, actually, and I’ve precisely the identical scenario with all of you, that if you find yourself leaping on me and I am taking place to the pit-wall after a tricky race and you’ve got tonnes of questions, typically I do not need to spend an excessive amount of time to reply the questions.”
