Ferrari has issued first statement after Lewis Hamilton declared debut year as the worst season ever after Las Vegas Grand Prix.
According to Racing365, Fred Vasseur has issued a "calm down" plea to Lewis Hamilton after the seven-time champion's striking assessment of his Las Vegas Grand Prix.
After qualifying slowest of all for the first time in his F1 career in Sin City, Hamilton started P19 following Yuki Tsunoda's pit-lane start, and quickly made up places in the Turn 1 chaos, to run 13th on the favoured hard tyres.
He became stuck behind Haas's Esteban Ocon, but eventually found a way past. But after switching to the mediums for his second stint, Hamilton's progress stalled out as he finished 10th on the road, 8.2s behind Nico Hulkenberg in the customer Ferrari-powered Stake.
After climbing from the SF-25, Hamilton described his race as "meaningless", although he was soon promoted to eighth, earning three more points, after the disqualification of the McLaren drivers.
Vasseur told media, “The main issue was [qualifying], and when you start P20, for sure the race is difficult, but at the end of the day, he had a decent first part of the race. We struggled a bit more on the mediums, but for now, we have to calm down. To jump out of the car and make the first comments, it is always a bit too much, so let's discuss after the debrief.”
“It is true on the mathematical side, the last couple of weekends have been very difficult with the Brazil DNF, Austin, and we got the penalty in Mexico and this one, but overall, I think Mexico and Austin were the best weekends from Lewis in terms of pure performance,” he added.
The Ferrari team principal also urged caution in making such claims whilst adrenaline was still high from being in the car.
