Schumacher/Rosberg on Ferrari, Hamilton and Leclerc: “No clear line”

It wasn’t the first time that Ferrari superstar Lewis Hamilton and Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc had clashed at Monza. Team principal Fred Vasseur subsequently had some unequivocal words to say, including on the pit lane.

The Frenchman said: “I’ve had good discussions with Lewis and Charles; they’ve sorted things out between themselves, and I’ve reminded them of some basic principles of how I run the team.”

“I have to protect the team; that’s part of my job. And that’s exactly what I told the drivers – if we want to achieve results, then we have to protect the team, and that includes taking responsibility.”

“I don’t ask the drivers to hold back on being candid or forthright. But very often they’re much more relaxed with us than when they speak to the press. Lewis told me: ‘Fred, 80 per cent of what I said was positive, and they’ve just picked out the negative 20 per cent.’ We all know how it works. If you say the team is doing a good job and then add a ‘but’, that’s exactly the part that makes the headlines. It’s all part of the game.”

“You can’t expect contracts to list every single scenario that might occur on the track, because inevitably everything would become a matter of interpretation. ‘I was there’, ‘No, you were five centimetres further back’; that doesn’t solve anything. The principles are clear, and the drivers know them too.’

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The two former German GP drivers, Nico Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher, have been watching the Hamilton versus Leclerc duel up close and are assessing the situation as Sky’s F1 experts.

Rosberg, a 23-time Grand Prix winner (2016 World Champion), believes: “You need very clear guidelines here. Both drivers must know exactly what is acceptable and what isn’t. Ferrari has lacked such guidelines, as we’ve learnt from the battles between Lewis and Charles. If you leave it up to the drivers, it leads to accidents and more and more problems between them.”

Six-time Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher (fourth in the World Championship in 2001 and 2002) adds: “During our interview, I got the feeling that Fred Vasseur was quite annoyed by the whole situation and had clearly addressed the mistakes. It annoys him that neither driver is rallying behind the team, showing any teamwork, but are instead, in a sense, putting themselves above the team. That has to stop if they’re trying to catch Mercedes.”