Hamilton: Vasseur is 'the guy to lead us' — sacking him 'would be detrimental' to Ferrari

Hamilton throws weight behind under-fire Ferrari boss

Lewis Hamilton has declared Frederic Vasseur as “the guy to lead us”, two days after Ferrari made an unusual public statement backing their team principal following speculation over his position. The seven-time champion, who is third in the drivers' title race while Ferrari sit second in the constructors' battle, said removing Vasseur would be a mistake.

“He's doing a fantastic job,” Hamilton said. “If you look at the history, how many people [have been swapped] out [of] that role… and I feel like it's in a better place than it's been before.

“But it's not a one-man situation. It's lots and lots of people coming together and if you want to point fingers, point it somewhere else. There's people above who are also part of it.

“Fred's in his position, he's not going anywhere and I'm here to stay with him and I still believe fully in where we're going.

“Swapping him out won't change how the team is moving forward. If anything it will be detrimental.”

A process of building a foundation

Hamilton pointed to the progress Ferrari have made since a winless 2025 season, in which they finished fourth in the teams' championship. He and Charles Leclerc have each won a race this year. Ferrari started the season with the best chassis in terms of cornering performance, but their engine has fallen short of those produced by Mercedes and Red Bull.

“We're second in the championship, a huge improvement on last year already. And that's with a deficit on power of average 0.4secs [per lap] every single weekend. Some races it's 0.6sec and we've still be delivering really great performances,” Hamilton said.

“And that just highlights how great a job people at the factory have done. All the negativity takes away from that.

“Of course we're not where we want to be but you don't go from last year's experience straight to number one. It's a process and I think we've built a good foundation this year, we need to continue to build on it. We're not perfect yet but I do believe we can get there. I think we've had the best car this year. But it's unfortunate we have been down 0.4secs on power. That is difficult to overcome but it's something we're working on for next year.”

Vasseur has been team principal of Ferrari since 2023, with speculation over his future quelled for now by the Maranello outfit's public statement and Hamilton's emphatic endorsement.