Ferrari team principal Fred Vasser says Lewis Hamilton is frustrated but is unmotivated after making many harsh comments over the Hungarian League Lambrin weekend.
Hamilton described himself as “absolutely useless” after dropping out in the second quarter in qualifying, adding that Ferrari “probably needs to change drivers.” The seven-time world champion was similarly downbeat after finishing 12th place (the same position he started) saying he would not change his previous comments.
“Not particularly,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “When you have feelings, you have feelings. There’s a lot going on in the background.
Hamilton added, “I still love the team.” When pushing forward with his love for racing, Vasuzer says fans should not take away his attitude in Budapest as a lack of motivation.
“I don’t need to motivate him,” Vasser said. “To be honest, he’s frustrated, but he’s not motivated. It’s a completely different story. He can fully understand the situation. He’s also commenting on what the driver is saying in the car, but I don’t know if it’ll be much better if he puts the microphone on other sportsmen in football.
“They’re in performances and sometimes they’re making comments even when jumping out of the car. They understand the frustration, but we’re all frustrated. Sometimes when you ask me (please answer immediately), I go to the steward.
“We all know we’re pushing in the same direction. The good side of today is that, to put it all together, you can run the pole position and lead the first 40 laps. If you can lead the first 40 laps, you can go to the end.
Vasseur also says that the final result at Hanger Rolling is a byproduct of the starting position, pointing to Max Verstappen’s ninth place finish after a challenging qualifying as another example of how competitive the field is this year.
“I want to do P1 and P1, but we already know you can ask Max the same question,” he said. “As a championship, this season is completely different. It’s very, very tight. When you don’t have the pace, you can do (P12) in qualifying.
“I know that yesterday didn’t work out in qualifying. Then we made some bets. And when you make a bet like this to start from the hard, you know if you lose your position or not.