Ferrari trio – Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Frederic Vasseur – talk F1 Las Vegas GP plus strategy and the overall mood despite double points.
Even though Ferrari had double points from where it started in F1 Las Vegas GP, it wasn’t the best of moods post-race from either of the drivers. Leclerc moved up from P9 to P6 (P4), but lost out to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who started outside Top 10 and showed far better pace.
The Monegasque also lost out to Oscar Piastri in the pits, even though he has passed the Australian on track while fighting Isack Hadjar. He was stuck in the DRS train of Antonelli and Piastri in the final stint, which derailed any chance of podium. But he was more concerned about the strategy call.
He noted of a review to understand why he lost out to Piastri after his stop. Team boss Vasseur thought hindsight is always good, but lack of tyre data didn’t help their cause. Both Leclerc and Hamilton eventually gained couple of places to be P4 and P8 respectively, due to McLaren DQ.
Even though Hamilton climbed up from P20 to P10 in the race, the Brit was dejected hugely after enduring another tough outing. Usually he is happy about a fightback but in Las Vegas, he didn’t have the same feeling, while stressing on ‘worst season’ of F1 career.
Vasseur brushed off Hamilton’s statements and appreciated his clear and real view rather than creamy statement to hide the feeling. The Frenchman took John Elkann’s say positively as the drivers, while looking ahead to the final two races and doing well but not concluding anything from Las Vegas.
Race –
Leclerc: “Well, I mean, not really. It’s P6, so it’s still very frustrating to only finish P6 when you start P9. On the other hand, if I look my race, it’s been a bit of a crazy race. I had to take massive risks to overtake because we were very, very slow in the straights. So, on that side, it was an entertaining race. But then I don’t really understand what happened around the pit stop, but it seems that we’ve lost quite a few places. So, we’ll look back at that, whether we could have done something, yeah, better there.”
Hamilton: “It was a pretty straightforward first lap, I just stayed out of trouble. Zero [satisfaction to finish in points from back]. I gained 10 places like at the start but still a bad weekend. No [positives from the race]. At the moment I am not reflecting on it, it is same as last one. I am going to repeat it as I said exactly last time, because it is the same. I didn’t even know it [Albon incident] happened. I just know the balance just shifted.”
P2 in constructors –
Hamilton: “I don’t even know how many points we have, but at this rate, with my performance, we’re done [in constructors’ championship].”
Remaining races, progress –
Hamilton: “I’ve had 22 bad weekends, so I anticipate another couple. I think at this point, no. I think at this point no because I have tried everything and it is not working. I don’t know yet [about the winter] I’ll figure something out.”
Strategy call –
Leclerc: “Yeah. I mean, it’s more with Oscar as well, because I think Oscar was behind me after the first. I can’t remember. There was many cars around, but I thought that and then obviously he undercut us. So this is something we’ve got to look back. But I’m not so sure of what I’m saying. I think that in the car, I was surprised to see Oscar in front, which I thought he was behind before the stop. So, yeah, we’ll review that. Yeah, I mean, not surprised that the hard would hold on, quite surprised that the medium was so good for so long. But the hard was expected.”
Vasseur: “I think at the beginning with the medium we were able to overtake a bit on the degradation of the others, yeah probably the degradation of the others, it was much more difficult when the situation was stabilised than the second stint, also because we did all the stints in dirty air behind Piastri and Kimi, I think the good lesson of the race today is that when you are doing the race in clean air you can do 47 laps and when you are not in clean air you are struggling much more at the end of the day you know perfectly because you have a good eye on this that when we are running with high downforce for Charles, we are losing 6-7 kph in the straight line and when we are behind Piatsri we are stuck and we can do with the hard tyres and low deg we can do 75 laps behind Piastri and we are struggling more.
“The issue is that we were not sure about the tyres as we didn’t run single tyres on Friday or Saturday. We were not sure about the life of the tyres and to anticipate the pit stop I am not sure and I don’t want to speak for Mercedes, Toto or Kimi, I don’t know if they were expecting to do one stint or if they were expecting to pit again but it’s true that we realised during the race that we pit good longer and probably if you have to redo the strategy now you can say ok perhaps that if we stopped perhaps before Piastri, it would have been better but this is always very easy to do after the race.”
Pushing, getting Antonelli –
Leclerc: “No, I was pushing 200% the whole race. I don’t think I left anything on the table. So, no, I just think they had a bit more pace towards the end, but I also had pushed a lot behind them to try and get as close as possible. I had to, because otherwise I would lose DRS, and without the DRS I was dead slow. So it was a bit of a tough race to manage, but yeah, I don’t think I could have done anything better. It was just a bit of a shame to get stuck behind Oscar that had the DRS exactly at the point where I was catching up Oscar, and that made it very difficult for us. Again, I gave 100% until the really end, and there wasn’t anything I left on the table. So, no [wasn’t possible to get Antonelli].”
Hamilton mood –
Vasseur: “I think the main issue is yesterday that when you start from P20 and for sure the race is difficult but at the end of the day I think he had also a decent first part of the race that we struggled a little bit more with the medium but now that we don’t have to…let’s calm down, to jump out of the car and to make the first comment it’s always a bit too much. Let’s discuss after the debrief. Yeah, it’s true that on the mathematical side the last couple of weekends were very difficult with Brazil, DNF and then Mexico, penalty. And this one, but overall I think Mexico, Austin it was probably also the best weekend of Lewis in terms of pure performance. But now it’s true for the team also and we didn’t put everything together the last two weekends and it’s why on the mathematical side and on the championship we did a huge step down, but in terms of pure performance I think it’s also where we are not in so bad shape compared to the mid-season.
“I can understand the reaction from Lewis just after the race but we just have to calm down to discuss and to be focused on the next two because the next two we will be back and keep in mind also that Lewis was there in FP1 and in FP2 he had the pace that was good and it means that we have to build up the weekend like this and for sure to start from P20 is not the best week. You know perfectly the system the TV pen five minutes after the race when you have a tough race, it’s very hard for them and I can perfectly understand the adrenaline, the emotion and to have a comment a bit harsh at this stage of the weekend and to say that it’s…I don’t know if normal is the right word but I prefer to have drivers being very open at the end of the race when you didn’t do the perfect job when the car was not good to say ‘ok I’m frustrated’ than someone going to the TV pen saying ‘I know guys, the team is perfect, the car is good, blah blah blah’, in this case you would be upset but you can’t blame them with any circumstances.
“And I think it’s quite normal as a human sometimes on the radio or just after the session to be a bit not upset but to be a bit on the emotion now the most important is not what they say on the TV pen what they do on the Monday morning with the team to try to do better and to try to push the team to do better this is more the job of the drivers than the TV pen. You can understand that it’s normal that Lewis is not happy with P10 in Vegas and Ferrari is not happy with P10 in Vegas and Ferrari is not happy with P6 in Vegas but now the reaction is to work together to try to do a better job next week and it’s the life of the team that if you remember that Max was P11 in Budapest and it was not the absolute drama, I mean that we need to keep this approach and to come back again and again and to try to push again and again and to try to do a better job. The frustration is normal that I would be worrying if we didn’t have this kind of frustration when you are we as a Lewis, me and Lewis when we are doing P10.”
Leclerc’s situation –
Vasseur: “Today it’s difficult but if you have a look at the last couple of races that we are speaking about Mexico, that it’s a matter of penalty that he was able to be on the podium I don’t think that we have to change completely it’s a matter more to put everything together and I think we are struggling to have a clean weekend but it’s either the penalty or contact with Colapinto or the quali yesterday and it’s not pure performance not only pure performance, for sure we have to improve on performance this is clear but it’s more the way you build up the weekend and how you do the expedition and the preparation.”
John Elkann’s comments –
Vasseur: “For sure that he wants to push the team to do better, to do a better job, to work as a team and this we have to take it as a positive message and a supportive message. For sure today it’s a difficult weekend but it has nothing to do with this, it’s a more technical matter.”
Morale –
Vasseur: “For sure you always want to do a better job it’s a DNA of the racing team and I think if you go through the grid today except probably Max everybody would have loved to do a better job but it means that it’s true for us, it’s true for the team, it’s true for Charles, it’s true for Lewis and we want to get more but the only way to get more is to work harder and to come back next week with more determination more focus and to try to avoid mistakes and to develop the car. It’s not something that we have to change drastically.”
Here’s start from Lewis Hamilton: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-las-vegas-gp-hamilton-avoids-chaos-at-the-start.1849555705359754825
Here’s Charles Leclerc fighting cars: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/charles-leclerc-hunts-down-oscar-piastri-in-las-vegas.1849555171114783750
Here’s how F1 Las Vegas GP panned out
Here’s Ferrari drivers on John Elkann