Fred Vasseur responds after Hamilton-Leclerc team order ‘misjudgement’

Fred Vasseur has put Lewis Hamilton’s failure to let Charles Leclerc back through into eighth place in Baku down to nothing more than a “misjudgment” from the British racer.

After Friday’s high note where Ferrari clinched the 1-2 in practice, the team’s weekend in Azerbaijan Grand Prix began to fall apart on Saturday.

Lewis Hamilton failed to give P8 back to Charles Leclerc

While Hamilton wasn’t able to make it out of Q2, eliminated from qualifying in 12th place where he was four-tenths short of progressing, Leclerc crashed early in the pole position shoot-out.

The Monegasque driver got it wrong at Turn 15, with his qualifying ending with his SF-25 nose-first in the barrier. That left him P10 on the grid as he had yet to set a time.

Sunday’s race wasn’t much better as while the teammates did bring home a double points-score, they were down in eighth and ninth with Hamilton ahead of Leclerc.

That, though, was not the finishing order that Ferrari expected.

Having asked Leclerc to move over for Hamilton to give him the opportunity to chase down the cars ahead, Hamilton was expected to give the position back to his teammate if he wasn’t able to make progress. However, when the team order came, he fumbled it.

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“Let Charles by, he’s one and a half [seconds] behind you,” race engineer Riccardo Adami said over the radio.

“This is the last lap. And behind [him] is [Isack] Hadjar [by] two seconds, Charles 1.5 behind, let him by.”

The seven-time World Champion did slow for Leclerc, even moving off the racing line, only to cross the line ahead of his teammate.

Vasseur insists there was nothing sinister about it, just a mistake from the Briton.

“I think the situation was clear for us that Lewis had a tyre advantage and we asked Charles to let him go to try to overtake Lawson and Tsunoda or Norris,” he said as he explained why Ferrari initially ordered Leclerc to let Hamilton by.

“On the top, Charles had the issue with the recovery and we are not at the top on the engine and that, I think, was the best option for us to do this move.

“We asked to swap back and it looks like Lewis had a misjudgment on the position of the start and finish line.”

Hamilton did apologise to Leclerc, but in a battle for eighth and ninth, neither Ferrari teammate particularly cared who was ahead.

“Firstly, Charles… Obviously, I was quicker, but Charles was gracious to let me by,” Hamilton said.

“At the end, I got the message really late on, and I was zoned in on the car in front of me, even though there was 0.001 chance of passing.

“I was still hopeful, maybe. Basically, I did lift on the straight and did actually brake, but I missed it by like four tenths, so that was just a misjudgment for myself. So I apologise to Charles.

“At the end of the day, it’s 8th and 9th, so…”

As for Leclerc, he said that while the “rules were not respected”, it wasn’t an issue given they weren’t racing for big points

“I think it was very clear, but I really don’t care for an eighth place at the end,” said Leclerc of the team orders saga. “I don’t think that this should be the talking point.

“Unfortunately, we have been very slow all weekend, and that’s where we should focus on. P8 or P9, or P9 or P8, is not something that really interests me, so it’s fine.”

Ferrari dropped to third in the Constructors’ Championship, four points down on Mercedes.

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