Vasseur admits key Ferrari failure behind Hamilton's tough season

The 57-year-old, during his interaction with the media at Ferrari’s end-of-season press briefing, attributed the struggles of the British driver to underestimating the transition from Mercedes to the Ferrari outfit.

“I think it was difficult for Lewis, and that’s a mild way of putting it. Because after 20 years with Mercedes – I say 20 years, because for me, McLaren was McLaren-Mercedes, and then [he was with] Mercedes – it was a huge change,” Vasseur began.

Further supporting his point, the Ferrari team boss highlighted how every component of the Ferrari team differs from what Hamilton experienced at Mercedes.

“It's not just about the food or the weather; every single software is different, every single component is different, and the people around him were different,” he added.

Vasseur also pointed out the fine margins that defined the 2025 campaign, citing scenarios from the Abu Dhabi and Hungarian Grands Prix where Hamilton failed to advance to the final stages of qualifying.

"If you are not on top of everything, you leave a couple of hundredths of a second on the table. Today, with the field we had – I think it was Abu Dhabi in Q2 – you had just one tenth between P5 and P15. It means we were not in full control of every single detail of the package," he added.

“We lost, a little bit, parts of the season like this, sometimes for less than one tenth of a second. I have in mind Budapest, when Charles, in Q2, was one-tenth faster than Lewis. Lewis was P11, and in the end, Charles finished with pole position,” he continued.

Vasseur, however, added that there remains no fitting excuse for Hamilton’s underwhelming display, while again emphasising that the team underestimated the challenge the seven-time world champion faced in switching to Ferrari.

"It's not an excuse, it’s not a good reason. You have to be in front of everybody, but at the end of the day, we are talking about details. Perhaps... we underestimated, for sure, the change of culture, the change of people around him, the change of everything,” he said.

"Even if we came back at a decent pace – I’m not speaking about classification, I’m speaking about collaboration and understanding of the car in the last part of the season – it was tough,” he concluded.

Hamilton recorded the worst season of his stellar F1 career so far, etching his name into several unwanted record books and failing to achieve any top-three finishes throughout the season.

The only success the 40-year-old achieved came at the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint, where he claimed first place at the Shanghai circuit.

Earlier, Max Verstappen acknowledged that seeing Hamilton struggle at Ferrari throughout the season was difficult.

The Red Bull Racing driver, however, expressed confidence in Hamilton’s ability to bounce back in the coming seasons.

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