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Both Leclerc and teammate seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton had given strong support to Vasseur after reports circulated in Italian media outlets suggesting that he might be replaced.<\/p>\n
These followed the team\u2019s disappointing start to the season after a strong finish last year and the arrival of Hamilton, a marquee signing yet to register a podium finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the fact that there was so much hype around the team when we started the season led everybody to think about Ferrari winning the championship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, that was not the case. Then came all the rumours \u2013 all things that we cannot control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leclerc added that Vasseur\u2019s calmness had helped the team after he had arrived to replace Mattia Binotto in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that and his overall vision, which he has embedded into the team is very, very important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the beauty of Ferrari is the fact that emotionally-speaking, it\u2019s always quite intense, but it can also harm us in some ways and especially when tougher times arrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cFred has always had very cold blood in those moments and helped the team to be a little bit more lucid. That\u2018s probably the biggest thing that Fred brought to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur. AP Photo\/Denes ErdosSource: AP<\/p>\n
Leclerc said he felt optimistic that Vasseur would prove the right leader ahead of the sweeping technical regulation changes next year.<\/p>\n
Ferrari confirmed Vasseur, 57, had signed a new contract in a statement issued earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, who has a long association with Vasseur dating back to 2006 when he won the GP2 title for his ART Grand Prix team, echoed Leclerc\u2019s relief that the Frenchman was remaining at the helm.<\/p>\n
Asked to compare Vasseur with his former Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, Hamilton said the two men were \u201ccompletely different\u201d but both were \u201cmassive racers\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added that they both also allowed him to be an authentic version of himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can say, just from my previous experience, is that I remember the real positive when I was working with Toto, was just how he was able to utilise individuals, figure out how people work best, how to get the most out of someone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, with me, he created freedom for me to be able to express myself the way I wanted to and that enabled me to be the best version of myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what he does. I think Fred is very similar in that respect and I\u2019m still trying to learn the way that Fred likes to work, but I have absolute confidence in Fred, as I\u2019ve always said.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 13 of this season\u2019s 24 races, Ferrari are second in the constructors\u2019 championship, 268 points adrift of runaway leaders McLaren and 28 ahead of Mercedes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc on Thursday welcomed the \u201cimportant\u201d Ferrari announcement that Fred Vasseur had signed a new multi-year deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-36070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}