Ferrari make bold Hamilton prediction following Italian GP surge

12:30, 08 Sep

Updated: 13:05, 08 Sep

byNorberto Mujica

'Lewis Hamilton is back!', or so at least Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur believes. His belief in his British driver's successful acclimatisation to the scarlet red team will see him poised to streak-breaking result this very season.

For the first time ever in Hamilton's long F1 tenure he's been without a podium result for seventeen Grands Prix.

However, since Zandvoort the seed has been planted for the British talent to put a stop to that streak, Vasseur believes.

After the Italian Grand Prix the Frenchman told GPblog, based on who Hamilton has been fighting with on track, the chances for the Briton to finally score his first podium in red are there, and in fact such is the expectation.

"Yeah, because he was able to fight with Russell in Zandvoort to come back from P10 to the gearbox of Russell today," Vasseur said. "Russell was a couple of times on the podium, yes we can expect to be on the podium."

Ferrari out of the podium but "at least we closed the gap"

Regarding the podium expectations ahead of their home race, and the fact they weren't met, doesn't dampen Vasseur's spirits, who sees, despite not being able to get the desired result, the improvements in relation to the top contenders.

"I think we are one tenth off the first row yesterday," he stated. "Even if you play differently with the engine, mode, fuel and so [on], we are speaking about 3-4 kilos of fuel, that this we never know.

"But it's true also that even in the race it's the smallest gap with McLaren, It was also the smallest gap in FP3, the smallest gap in qualy, in FP1 and I think we are in a better shape this weekend."

"And not enough. Because they are in front of us but I think at least we closed the gap," he concluded.