Fred Vasseur shuts down claims Ferrari split Spanish GP strategy to separate drivers

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur shut down speculation that it split the strategy of its drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the Spanish Grand Prix to try and separate the two on track.

Leclerc and Hamilton’s relationship has been under the spotlight in recent weeks. In Zandvoort, there was friction over team radio as the Briton called on Ferrari to employ team orders to let him overtake the Monegasque. Then in Italy, the pair came together on the opening lap, which hampered Hamilton’s race and saw him fall back through the pack.

Despite the incidents, Ferrari has maintained that there are no issues between its pair and Vasseur has repeatedly rejected claims that there is a crisis brewing at the Scuderia. 

However, questions flared again at last weekend's Spanish GP, where Hamilton qualified fourth and just ahead of Leclerc who lined up in fifth. For the race start, however, the pair took wildly different tyre strategies, with Hamilton starting on the softs while Leclerc lined up with the hard tyres fitted.

Vasseur was probed about this choice to split the strategy between Ferrari's drivers, but shut down any suggestion that it was done to try and keep the pair apart in the grand prix.

“Have a look. [Lando] Norris, [Oscar] Piastri did the same. [George] Russell, [Kimi] Antonelli did the same. [Max] Verstappen, [Liam] Lawson did the same,” he told reporters after the race on Sunday. “I don't think they [McLaren] were scared to have a crash between Norris and Piastri.”

In the race, Hamilton suffered a braking issue early on that meant he could never make the most of his soft tyres – ultimately retiring from the grand prix after just a handful of laps.

Charles Leclerc held out hope for a late safety car in Madrid

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images

Leclerc, meanwhile, pushed on with his hard tyres in the hope of a late safety car that would give him a cheap stop. This, he said, was the best option for the team after its lacklustre qualifying around the Madring.

"We could have done many different things, but I think the best thing for us today was what we did,” he said. “If I had to do the race again I would do exactly the same thing. Because starting on the soft at the beginning wouldn't have given me the opportunity to do anything special.

“I would have ended up in the same strategy as the guys in front of me and wouldn't have been very helpful, considering there were no overtakes. So, the hard soft was the right strategy and waiting for the safety car at the end was also the right thing to do. But, unfortunately, it never came.”

Additional reporting by Roberto Chinchero and Cihangir Perperik.