Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is ‘2,000 per cent behind’ Lewis Hamilton despite the superstar’s early-season struggles.
Hamilton is yet to secure a podium since his high-profile switch to Ferrari with his most recent result seeing him come seventh at last weekend’s Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
In fact, Hamilton has not finished higher than fifth this season.
The seven-time world champion’s form is in stark contrast to his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, as the Monegasque driver earned a podium finish in Jeddah and has finished below fourth just once.
Teething problems were expected for Hamilton, especially since he joined Ferrari after 12 trophy-laden years with Mercedes.
But it appeared Hamilton remained in an uphill battle to understand the capabilities of his car as he claimed ‘there wasn’t one second’ where he felt comfortable in Saudi Arabia.
The 40-year-old also felt Ferrari fans, team members and the bosses were collectively ‘not happy’ with how he has performed in the opening five races of the season.
But Vasseur has come out in defence of his prize recruit and believes he’d seen enough glimpses from Hamilton to know he is capable of finding form in the SF-25 car.
“I will be 2,000 per cent behind him,” Vasseur told reporters after Sunday’s race.
“I will give him support and we will start from tomorrow morning to try to find solutions and reasons and to work on it early in the morning.
“But honestly, I am not too worried.
“If you have a look on what he did in China or what he did in the race in Bahrain last week, or even on the first part of the session in this weekend, the potential is there for sure.
“We just have to adjust the balance because we are, collectively, Lewis and us, we are struggling with the balance of his car and [how] he is working the tyres.
“It’s a kind of negative spot but I think the potential of the car is there and we will try to solve that.”
Vasseur also took umbrage with a reporter who proposed the idea Hamilton’s form had tailed off ‘dramatically’ as he delivered an X-rated response.
“It’s not dramatically,” Vasseur said.
“We did five races so far. I know that you want to have the big headlines tomorrow that ‘Fred said this.’
“But this is f****** b******. At the end of the day, we are in competition. You have ups and downs.
“When we have ups, we are not World Champions. When we have downs, we are not nowhere. It’s just a competition.
“I’m not sure that you draw the same conclusion with Max [Verstappen] last week when he was seventh [in Bahrain].
“It is like it is. The competition is tight.
“You have 10 cars and a couple of tenths. Have a look at Max. He won in Japan. He finished 30 seconds behind [Oscar] Piastri in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia he was P2 and had pole position.
“We just have to stay calm. You can do whatever you want. I don’t want to worry for you. At least for us as a team, we have to work step by step.”
Hamilton will look to land his first podium finish since November last year on May 4 at the Miami Grand Prix.
