Ferrari underperforming, Leclerc crash, Hamilton furious: Team principal Vasseur explains

Monza isn’t worth the trip for Ferrari in 2026: Charles Leclerc’s race car was wrecked following a nasty crash at the Parabolica, whilst English superstar Lewis Hamilton was at odds with his team over tyre strategy.

The Brit wanted to run on hard tyres at the restart, but was given medium ones; Ferrari then failed to capitalise on a virtual safety car period to fit Hamilton with fresh tyres. The champion was thoroughly fed up after the race.

So there’s a lot to explain for Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, who puts it all into perspective as follows: “Today is a tough day for Ferrari. On Saturday in qualifying, things went reasonably well for us in terms of grid positions, but we knew we had a huge deficit in top speeds and that it would be difficult to defend our positions and attack in the race. And that’s exactly how it turned out.”

“We’re struggling on the straights. We saw that with Leclerc on the first lap and later in the race with Hamilton, even though our pace was good towards the end. That wasn’t a major problem. But we lost positions, and when we had the chance, we couldn’t overtake. We knew Monza would be difficult for this reason, but it turned out to be worse than we’d expected. The battles during the race were very complex.”

“If you’re behind someone at Zandvoort, you lose two-tenths per lap. At Monza, it’s five tenths. But even more important is the factor in the corners. When we attacked or defended on the straights, we lost power and subsequently lost positions as well. That’s exactly what happened with Gasly, for example. We overtook him, and then he had the chance to get past us again. We had to push a bit harder through the corners, putting more strain on the tyres than the others – and that’s how we lost the opportunity to overtake.”

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And then there was the fierce battle between Leclerc and Hamilton in the first part of the Grand Prix. Vasseur: “We’ll have to speak to both of them to clarify this situation. It’s a bit of a shame. To start a race like that, only for one of the two cars to then fall so far back, is certainly not ideal.”

Commenting on Leclerc’s crash, the Frenchman said: “Leclerc told us he was fine, but he wanted to get home as quickly as possible. It was a 50g impact – really nasty. I can understand why he wanted to leave as soon as possible.”

“From the looks of it, he simply lost control of the car because he was too far out on the left. I’m very glad he’s relatively unharmed. The car is badly damaged, and the engine has probably taken a knock as well.”

Vasseur rejects the accusation that Ferrari should have given Hamilton fresh tyres during the virtual safety car phase. “Before the VSC, Lewis was ten seconds behind Max, and he was also ten seconds behind Max at the finish. What’s more, Lewis would have had to overtake rivals after the tyre change, and we struggled with that today.”

“Tomorrow, in the debrief with the team, I’ll say that we need to keep developing the car and the engine. Madrid, Sepang and Baku will undoubtedly be a different story. We knew that Monza, because of its layout, would be the worst track for us, and that’s exactly how it turned out. Next week we face a new challenge, and Madrid will be a good opportunity to look better. We must continue to take it one race at a time.”