Fred Vasseur was left frustrated after Ferrari squandered a possible one-two finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc racing each other too hard on the opening lap. What had looked like a strong position for Ferrari quickly became a missed opportunity, especially on a track where overtaking is hard.
Hamilton held top spot on the drag to Turn 1, while Leclerc moved into second after passing George Russell. But by the time the pair reached Turn 4, both Ferrari drivers had run wide while disputing the same piece of road, and the chance to control the race had already started to slip away.
Why Vasseur was so frustrated
Vasseur said Ferrari had made a proper step forward over the last couple of events, which made the outcome even harder to take. In his view, being one-two at Turn 4 should not have ended with Ferrari missing out on the win.
“Honestly, I'm a bit frustrated, because I think we did a proper step forward in terms of performance the last couple of events, and we were one-two at Turn 4,” he said. “And when you are one-two at Turn 4, you don't imagine that you don't win the race.”
That is the key point. Ferrari had the race in a strong place, but the opening-lap battle changed the shape of it before the strategy phase could really settle things.
The penalty and the lost control of the race
Leclerc later received a five-second penalty during the race, and after his stop he also lost the lead to Max Verstappen. Hamilton, meanwhile, got up to second after the red flag and resumption, but by then Ferrari’s chance of turning that early advantage into a clean finish had already gone.
Vasseur made clear that the issue was not only about the result, but about how the situation developed between the two Ferrari cars. “My only discussion, it's a matter of respect,” he said. “I think this is typically what respect means.”
It is a fair warning from the Ferrari team principal. If a team has 2,000 people working on the project, and the car is quick enough to run one-two at an unforgiving circuit, then the standards inside the garage have to be just as sharp as the pace on track.
For Ferrari, the lesson is straightforward. The performance step was real, but so was the cost of over-fighting on lap one. At Mexico, that was enough to turn promise into frustration.
