Fred Vasseur blatantly refuted the possibility of copying Mercedes’s challenger for Lewis Hamilton and painting it red in the 2025 season.
Lewis Hamilton is all set to enter Ferrari in the 2025 season as the team prepares to welcome him with open arms. The Briton is believed to take the Italian constructor back to their glory days in Formula 1.
However, Hamilton will meet a completely new set of crew members as he will have to work to find his place in the team.
Amidst the preparations at Maranello, Fred Vasseur disregarded the possibility of copying Mercedes’ chassis.
Mercedes’s chassis in the past helped Lewis Hamilton achieve six dominant world championship victories. The team at Brackley provided the 39-year-old with a decent challenger, which suited him well. However, Ferrari has their own way of handling the chassis development and wouldn’t be able to copy the German carmaker’s route to facilitate Hamilton’s entry to the team.
Fred Vasseur highlighted that it would be ‘wrong’ to simply copy Mercedes’s setup and paint it in Ferrari’s color in the 2025 season. This meant that the Italian constructor would have to start from scratch and ensure that Hamilton’s needs were met with the chassis development.
It would be wrong if we copied Mercedes’ setup and just painted everything red. We have to find our own way with Lewis.
Fred Vasseur told AMuS.
One thing that Frederic Vasseur definitely wants to avoid. “It would be wrong if we copied Mercedes’ setup and just painted everything red. We have to find our own way with Lewis,” he said.
8/9 #AMuS
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) December 19, 2024
Fred Vasseur declares Lewis Hamilton ‘not a rookie’ amidst uncertainty on the debut
Lewis Hamilton would race with Ferrari for the first time in his life as people around the paddock raised concerns about the debut. Hamilton has raced for a couple of teams in Formula 1 already and wouldn’t be fazed by the process of learning everything from scratch. Moreover, the Briton had the confidence of Fred Vasseur who claimed that the 39-year-old wasn’t a rookie who was testing with a different team for the first time.
Lewis is not exactly a rookie doing this for the first time.
Fred Vassuer added.
Ferrari’s upturn in the latter half of the 2024 season is already a highly motivating factor for Hamilton. The seven-time world champion can potentially win his record eighth championship in the pinnacle of motorsport. Moreover, the Italian constructor could contend for the championship after almost 17 years of a victory drought.
