Vasseur urges Ferrari to ‘stay calm’ after mixed fortunes in Bahrain as he explains why Hamilton’s frustration was ‘appreciated’

Fred Vasseur has suggested that Ferrari need to “stay calm” over their performance levels after mixed fortunes during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, with the Frenchman also admitting that he “appreciated” Lewis Hamilton’s frustration with himself after Saturday’s Qualifying.

After starting from the front row of the grid, Charles Leclerc eventually crossed the line in fourth, having lost out on a potential first podium of the season when Lando Norris won in a late-race battle for third.

Hamilton, meanwhile, went from P9 to a final finishing position of P5 and stated that he had “learned a lot” in the process, having been self-critical of his Qualifying performance one day earlier.

Asked firstly to give his take on Hamilton’s weekend, Vasseur responded: “I understand the frustration [on Saturday] evening because if you have a look from FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, he was into the two-tenths plus or minus with Charles.

“And then you arrive to Q3, the first lap is deleted and the second one he made a mistake, and then you pay the price because the grid is made not on the average but on the last lap. And for sure that is a bit of frustration, frustration for him but for us also.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 13: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 on — Leclerc missed out on a maiden podium of the season in Bahrain, crossing the line in fourth

“He had a very strong recovery today, a solid race that he came back P5. I think the race time compared to the top two, top three is almost similar. For me it was okay. Today he was very strong, consistent. Now with the field that we have, if you miss two or three-tenths in Quali because you do a mistake, you lose six or seven positions.”

Reflecting further on Hamilton’s disappointment after Qualifying, the Team Principal continued: “The fact that he was a bit down [on Saturday] evening, I like it. Because if the guy is coming back in P10 and he says it's a shame, for sure he was disappointed because he was much better all the weekend so far.

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“Now we know that it's happened like this in F1 today, that it was not the case three, four years ago, that if you had five-tenths between the team because you do a mistake, you lose one position, one row. Today you lose five-tenths, you can lose six or seven positions.

“I think Charles was on the first row but, if it was three or four-hundredths slower, he would have been P6. It's always relative that we have to stay calm in terms of judgment of the performance, because sometimes for almost nothing, you can change a good weekend into a [very bad one].

“I appreciated the reaction of Lewis [after Qualifying]. I did my best to push him a little bit. Today he was in a very good shape and a very strong shape, but let's start from there next week and hope to do [our] best.”

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 12: Ninth placed qualifier Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia — Hamilton expressed frustration with his own performance after Saturday's Qualifying in Sakhir

When quizzed on the idea that Hamilton was being judged too early into his tenure with Ferrari, Vasseur spoke of the importance for the team of maintaining consistency, something that he believes they have done well over the past two years.

“In terms of management, I think we have to take it a bit easy, to calm down,” the Frenchman explained. “We have ups and downs as everybody [does]. The issue is that the ups for us are a bit higher and the downs are a bit lower.

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“It means that if we want to keep a consistent approach, and we did it very well the last two years, we have to stay calm, to try to improve hundredths of seconds. But I'm convinced that we'll do the same job as we did the last two years.”

In terms of where specifically the performance is lacking, Vasseur conceded: “I think that the picture is that, from session to session, it's a bit different. You can have some stints when we are fighting with the McLaren, that Sprint race in China or the second stint in Bahrain today.

“But overall if you have a look on the average of the season, I think we are missing two, three, four-tenths. I don't know, but we are missing something.”