Vasseur Counters Hamilton's Claims About Verstappen's Behavior Not Befitting Of Champion
F1Saturday, 27 July 2024 at 12:00
Scuderia Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur shared his opinion on Lewis Hamilton's comments about Max Verstappen's behavior at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The 13th round of the season at Hungaroring was a tough race for Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen, and he let it be known with his overly aggressive radio messages to his team.
The Dutchman wasn't happy with everything, from his strategy to the drivability of his car to the decisions of the stewards (at whom he jibed after the race).
Speaking ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was asked by the media how he thinks Verstappen should behave in such situations.
The Mercedes driver suggested that the 26-year-old needs to behave like a World Champion, and when he was asked what that is, he replied, "Not like it was last weekend," suggesting all the swearing wasn't appropriate.
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The team principal of Scuderia Ferrari, Frederic Vasseur, was approached with the comments of his future driver (Hamilton) and asked if he would be putting Verstappen aside for a word after a race like Hungary if the Dutchman was his driver. He replied:
"I don't see the link with Lewis on this, I'm sorry. I don't know if I have to be politically correct or not, but at the end of the day, we have also to keep in mind that we are the only sport in the world where the guys are speaking on the radio during the effort or the race."
Vasseur then pointed to an argument that was brought up by various F1 drivers in the past- if other sportsmen (like football players) had microphones under their mouths throughout the game, it could be much worse.
F1 drivers are also high-performance athletes, and they are full of adrenaline when they speak on the team radio. Hence, Vasseur doesn't think trying to force-censor them is necessary. He added:
"I'm not sure that if you put a microphone on a football player, it would be much better. Even on the referee sometimes. It means that we have also to calm down with this."
"Or we have to switch off the microphone, but I'm not sure that it will be a step forward for the show. But I will discuss with Lewis about it."
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