Vasseur Unwilling to Sacrifice Hamilton for Potential Pole Bryn Lennon – Formula 1 – Getty Images
Following Ferrari’s P4 and P5 qualifying results at Monza, Team Principal Fred Vassuer was asked if he considered asking Lewis Hamilton to give Charles Leclerc a tow, to increase Leclerc’s speed and possibly elevate his chance of grabbing pole at one of Ferrari’s home tracks.
Vassuer put it simply, saying that it’s not worth the trouble it brings to ask one driver to sacrifice their results for the other.
“With this story of maximum lap time, if you do it, you have to sacrifice one car,” Vasseur told F1TV. “It’s important for the team and for the drivers to be in a positive mood. It could work, but it also could not work at all.”
Vasseur added that Charles controlling his own qualifying effort was a benefit to him as well, as he sees tire preparation as a greater overall need from this qualifying than a starting position.
“Even for Charles, you are much more focused on the tow, the gap to the car in front of you, than you are on the tire preparation. The tire preparation is so important today that we decided to be forced on our own race.”
Hamilton was given a five-place grid drop following the Dutch Grand Prix, where he crashed out on lap 22. Ahead of the race, Hamilton sped through double-waved yellow flags, which resulted in a post-race penalty.
With no chance of a Pole position for Hamilton, who previously held the track record at Monza before Max Verstappen smashed it in Saturday’s qualifying, there was speculation that a team order could come into play for Hamilton to give up an opportunity for his best lap and instead give Leclerc a tow.
This call was not made, and ultimately, Leclerc qualified fourth, the same position he won from in last year’s Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton was just over a tenth behind his teammate, qualifying fifth and starting 10th.
Hamilton was also asked at the track if he would’ve given Leclerc a tow if asked. He responded that it’s not something any team has ever asked of him, and with his penalty, he needed to help his starting position as much as he could.
“Do I feel like they should have?” Hamilton answered. “I don’t.”
“It’s not something I ever did in any of my other teams, potentially end up sacrificing one of the drivers,” Hamilton added. “And I’ve already got a five-place penalty, so point-wise, I needed to be as high as I could.”
The Ferraris have the pace for both cars to be competing against the McLarens, Mercedes, and Verstappen for spots on the podium this weekend; instead, Hamilton will be fighting to stay in the points, starting from the final point-paying position.