The dream debut season for Lewis Hamilton at Scuderia Ferrari has increasingly taken on the characteristics of a public relations nightmare, culminating in a tense exchange following the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

In the wake of a performance he deemed “terrible,” the seven-time world champion’s profound disappointment led to a stunning admission about his career trajectory, prompting an unusually direct public reprimand from his Team Principal, Fred Vasseur.

The strained atmosphere highlights the immense pressure mounting within the iconic Italian team as Hamilton, now 40, struggles to find momentum in his first campaign with the Prancing Horse, raising questions about his future mindset as the season concludes.

The Las Vegas Lull and the Career Low

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was meant to be a showcase for Formula 1’s glamour, but for Lewis Hamilton, it was another chapter in a season he has unequivocally labeled the worst of his 19-year career. Despite the glitz surrounding the event, Hamilton qualified last, an agonizing position that severely compromised his race. While he eventually finished eighth, benefiting from the later disqualification of the McLaren pair, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, for running illegal cars, the result did little to soothe the driver’s frustration.

Immediately after the race, a clearly despondent Hamilton did not mince words when discussing his performance and the season as a whole. His candid despair indicated a desire to simply put the campaign behind him, emphasizing his eagerness to “draw a line under the campaign” with the final two rounds approaching in Qatar this weekend and Abu Dhabi the week after.

Hamilton’s public declaration that this was his worst season ever is not only a heavy critique of the Scuderia’s current car but also a rare crack in the typically impenetrable professional facade of one of the sport’s legends. For a driver accustomed to fighting for championships, battling outside the top five on a regular basis is an existential struggle.

Vasseur’s Call for Composure

The immediacy and severity of Hamilton’s critique, however, did not sit well with Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur. While Vasseur acknowledged the driver’s frustration, he saw the post-race comments as overly emotional and counterproductive, especially with two crucial races still remaining.

Vasseur’s response was a sharp, yet measured, call for professionalism and focus. I understand the reaction from Lewis just after the race. But he has to calm down and be focused on the next two races, Vasseur urged, essentially telling his lead driver to keep his emotions in check for the sake of the team.

The Team Principal sought to temper the negativity by pointing to the car’s underlying potential, suggesting that the qualifying disaster was the primary issue, not the race pace itself. “Lewis was there in practice, and the pace was good, but starting from 20th is not the best way to have good results,” Vasseur noted.

The reprimand serves as the second public caution Hamilton has received from his Ferrari bosses this season, signaling a management style focused on maintaining team morale and preventing negative narratives from taking root. Vasseur concluded his comments with a pragmatic reminder of the adrenaline-fueled environment: For now, we have to calm down. To jump out of the car and make the first comments, it is always a bit too much.

An Uneven Battle and Title Distance

The root of Hamilton’s frustration is clear in the statistics. Entering the final stretch of the season, Hamilton is 74 points behind his Monegasque teammate, Charles Leclerc. Crucially, Hamilton has been outqualified by Leclerc a staggering 17 times out of 22 races, a decisive metric that reflects the difficulty Hamilton has had adapting to the Ferrari machinery and extracting peak performance on Saturday afternoons.

While the two Ferrari drivers battle for supremacy within the team, the fight for the pinnacle of the championship is heating up dramatically elsewhere, without either Ferrari man in serious contention. The 2025 World Drivers’ Championship has narrowed down to a three-way contest, with Lando Norris leading his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen by just 24 points, with 58 points still available across the remaining rounds.

The absence of Ferrari—a team historically defined by competing for championships—from this critical final battle only adds to the pressure and disappointment felt within the camp. Hamilton, the sport’s most successful driver, joined the team with the expectation of elevating them back into contention, an expectation that has not yet materialized.

The coming races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi will test the resilience of both Hamilton and the Ferrari leadership. The challenge for Hamilton is to reset his focus and extract the maximum possible performance to end the season on a relative high, rather than dwelling on the disappointment. For Vasseur, the challenge is to manage a global superstar who is used to success, ensuring that Hamilton’s visible frustration does not become detrimental to the team’s morale as they prepare for a crucial winter development period. The resolution of this tension will be critical in determining the atmosphere heading into Hamilton’s highly anticipated second season with the Scuderia.