Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari Boss Compares Him to Carlos Sainz After FP1 Performance

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur compared Lewis Hamilton to Carlos Sainz after Hamilton finished P12 in the Free Practice 1 session at Australia’s Albert Park Circuit. While Hamilton replaced Sainz at Ferrari this year, Vasseur suggested that Free Practice results hardly make any difference to actual race results, expressing confidence in Hamilton’s performance. He pointed out that Sainz finished P8 in FP1 last year but went on to win the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton’s Ferrari onboarding this year attracted huge attention, leading to high expectations. Vasseur stressed that with marketing activities concluded over the winter break, the focus is to perform this season and Hamilton is already on the job, fully focused and determined.

Hamilton suffered with Mercedes’s ground effect cars since 2022 and it was only last year when he won two Grands Prix. Despite the struggles, the Ferrari chief expressed that he had no doubts about Hamilton’s ability to perform and get up to the task quickly. When Vasseur was asked about Hamilton’s statements during the team principals’ press conference in Australia, in which Hamilton described the current period as the most exciting time of his life, he said:

“The word of Lewis? Don’t ask me.

“I’m thinking the same, but for sure I think he’s happy, it’s a good journey for him, he enjoys what he’s doing, and we enjoy to work with him.

“But you know that we are all in the same situation that we’re all doing the winter period. We are all World Champion, we are all best friends, and then you have the first quali and we are back to the reality. And that’s okay.

“Now it’s the start of the season, and we have to be focused on this.

“We had two months of marketing, I would say that it was a huge wave that we had at the beginning.

“The most important [thing] is to be able to turn this page and to be back to business as usual, and to do the FP1 and the FP2, and it will be a long way.

“We have something like 150 sessions over the year, but it means that it’s just the beginning of the story, as James [Vowles] said before, and we have just to be focused on it, to forget about the world around us and to work as a team.”

Vasseur acknowledged that Hamilton must be given time to acclimatize to his new team, and thus, the expectations set for him must not be too high for the first race of the season. The Ferrari boss added:

“But, honestly, when he’s in the briefing room, he is fully focused on the objective, and he knows perfectly the job, and he has to build up the relationship with the team. And this is not a long process, but it’s a process that we have to follow. And we are on this path, but honestly we don’t have to expect too much for the first session.

“We know that we have a long way and honestly, that we did a good step also, I think, compared to last year. And I have a good feeling about that.

“I have absolutely no doubt that he will be able to perform and to perform soon. And last year, I think that Carlos [Sainz] was P8 or P9 in free practice, and he won the race.”