{"id":878864,"date":"2026-10-11T19:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T19:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878864\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T19:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T19:24:12","slug":"why-ferrari-caved-in-to-lewis-hamiltons-failed-singapore-f1-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878864\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ferrari caved in to Lewis Hamilton\u2019s failed Singapore F1 gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ferrari<\/a> team principal Fred Vasseur faced the media following Formula 1\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix, the hot topic was Lewis Hamilton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of the questions revolved around the unsuccessful strategy that saw Hamilton collapse from third to sixth in the Marina Bay race, as he stayed out under the VSC to complete a mammoth 44-lap stint on soft tyres.<\/p>\n

Across the last 22 of those, following the neutralisation, Hamilton haemorrhaged 2.5s a lap on average relative to Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a>. That is how he ended up sixth behind Kimi Antonelli and the McLarens.<\/p>\n

With the unwell Briton exempted from his post-race media commitments to visit the medical centre instead, Vasseur faced scrutiny from journalists keen to establish how that decision was made to the highest level of detail. And the Frenchman wasn\u2019t enjoying that prospect; he even interrupted the first question, suggesting it wasn\u2019t necessarily \u201cthe big event of the weekend\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Regardless, Hamilton\u2019s post-race radio apology made it clear that he had made the call to stay out during the VSC \u2013 so how exactly did that discussion pan out?<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] was very clear,\u201d Vasseur insisted. \u201cWe were P2-P3 on the track. We called two cars, \u2018Guys, you pit behind the VSC\u2019. One of my guys said, \u2018No, I prefer to stay on track\u2019. Or he didn\u2019t say \u2013 he said, \u2018I missed the pit entry\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t blame the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Frederic <\/p>\n

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Anni Graf – Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Vasseur, who was yet to speak to his driver, said Hamilton\u2019s decision was \u201cclearly a mistake\u201d, doubling down on what he previously told broadcasters.<\/p>\n

But is it OK for a driver to override the team\u2019s strategy, given he does not have the same exhaustive data and global view as engineers do?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see the outcome, it was not a good call,\u201d Vasseur admitted. \u201cBut on the other hand, quite often you are also telling us that we have to listen to the drivers, because they are into the car, they have the feeling with their tyres and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think on this one it was clear for me. But I have also to respect their feeling when they are into the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton: \u201cA painful lesson today\u201d
\n \"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Thompson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ferrari subsequently provided a statement from Hamilton \u2013 making up for his absence in the post-race media pen \u2013 in which the seven-time world champion described the setback as a \u201cpainful lesson\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday wasn\u2019t the result we were looking for and it was on me,\u201d Hamilton was quoted as saying. \u201cAt a track that\u2019s difficult to overtake, you need to try something different and I chose to start on a new medium tyre, to go long and try to make a one-stop work. Unfortunately, the medium didn\u2019t perform as well as the soft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a good second stint and the pace was back, but I couldn\u2019t make the progress I needed. Under the VSC, the team called me in but I missed the entry. After that, I decided to stay out and try to hold track position to the end but, in the closing laps, I was struggling massively with tyre degradation and lost three places, finishing P6, which doesn’t reflect the pace we had in the car today.<\/p>\n

\u201cA painful lesson today, but I take full responsibility for the decisions I made. Not every call will work out, and I can accept getting it wrong but I\u2019m sorry for the team for the points we lost today. They put so much into every weekend, and I wanted to deliver more for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll continue to put the work in and come back fighting at the next race.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur faced the media following Formula 1\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix, the hot topic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5027,1080,30648,368707,116318,99,369533],"class_list":["post-878864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-marina-bay-street-circuit","tag-singapore-gp","tag-sports","tag-why-ferrari-caved-in-to-lewis-hamiltonu2019s-failed-singapore-f1-gamble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}