Fred Vasseur challenges Lewis Hamilton's view on Max Verstappen's radio reaction

08/04/2024 09:14 AM

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has a different take on how Formula 1 drivers should use team radios, contrasting with Lewis Hamilton's recent statements on Max Verstappen.

During the tense race at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest, the Dutchman’s heated exchanges with his team led the seven-time Formula 1 world champion to urge the Red Bull driver to "remember to act like a World Champion."

The incident began when Max Verstappen, instructed to yield his position to Lando Norris due to a looming time penalty, expressed his frustration. The world champion had overtaken the McLaren MCL38 car of Lando Norris off the track at Turn 1, believing he was forced off by the British driver.

Further complicating matters, Red Bull was twice caught off guard by successful undercut attempts from Mercedes and Ferrari, leaving Max Verstappen in fifth place for the final stint, having to defend against a faster McLaren. His frustration culminated in terse radio communications with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase: "No mate, don't give me that s***," he told his Italian-British Formula One engineer over the team radio – "You guys gave me this s*** strategy, okay? I'm trying to rescue what's left. F***!"

The Dutch driver remained unapologetic for his post-race comments to his team, even after his frustrations had cooled. In contrast, Lewis Hamilton emphasized that drivers should be mindful of their role within a team when communicating over the radio.

"You have to be a team leader, a team member," the future Ferrari driver pointed out during the race weekend at the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium ahead of the summer break – "Maybe not such a team leader but just always remember you're a team-mate with lots of people and you have to act like a World Champion."

When asked to elaborate on what it means to act like a World Champion, the Mercedes driver responded with a laugh.: "That's a good question! Not like it was last weekend."

During the press conference for the Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps, Frederic Vasseur, who will soon be Lewis Hamilton’s team principal at Scuderia Ferrari, was questioned about whether he agreed with the seven-time F1 World Champion’s views on Max Verstappen’s public radio complaints to his team: "I don't see the link with Lewis on this, I'm sorry," – the French manager pointed out – “I don't know if I have to be politically correct or not, but at the end of the day, we have also to keep in mind that we are the only sport in the world where the guys are speaking on the radio during the effort or the race. I'm not sure that if you put a microphone on a football player, it would be much better. Even on the referee sometimes. It means that we have also to calm down with this. Or we have to switch off the microphone, but I'm not sure that it will be a step forward for the show. But I will discuss with Lewis about it." – the Ferrari team principal continued.

The topic was also addressed during the latest F1 Commission meeting, where former Ferrari team principal and current Formula 1 chief executive officer Stefano Domenicali reminded teams to manage their drivers’ radio communications carefully, given that these exchanges are broadcast globally. In response, Max Verstappen, a three-time World Champion, told his critics to simply switch off his radio if they find his messages objectionable. He emphasized that he will continue to voice his frustrations and hold his team to high standards.

"You know, people that don't like my language – then don't listen in, turn the volume down. I'm very driven to success, I think I've proven that already and I always want to optimise stuff. Now, people can argue that you might not be so vocal on the radio, but that's their opinion. My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time, to maybe also try and force that the second pit stop could have been a bit different. That's how it goes, we are very open-minded, and we are very critical with each other as a team. And that's been working for us very well, so I don't expect that to change. That's our approach, I think it's important that you can be critical because, in this world that we're living now, I feel that a lot of people can't take criticism anymore like it used to be. And I don't want to end up like that." – the Dutch driver concluded.

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