Despite Lewis Hamilton criticism, Fred Vasseur remains defiant that Ferrari did the right thing in F1 Miami GP

Despite criticisms on strategy from Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur feels that the team adopted the right strategy in the Miami GP. The race saw both Hamilton and Leclerc opt for different strategies, with the 7x champion starting the race on hard tires while his teammate was on medium tires.

In the second half of the race, after the pit stop, both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton converged on the same piece of tarmac, and the duo had a better pace than the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli ahead of them in P6.

The duo were around five seconds behind the Mercedes driver, but Lewis Hamilton was also stuck behind Charles Leclerc, as the 7x F1 champion had medium tires on the car in the second stint while Leclerc had the hard tires.

It was during this time that Lewis Hamilton asked the team to let him swap positions with Charles Leclerc, as he believed he had the better pace. After a back and forth for multiple laps, Ferrari ordered the drivers to swap positions. In the meantime, Hamilton's medium tires had been overheated, and the driver couldn't pull away from Leclerc.

A few laps from the end, the drivers swapped positions again, and by this time Hamilton was furious at the slow decision-making. The driver was even critical of the process in the media. Talking to media, including Autosport, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has, however, doubled down that the team made the right calls. He said,

"Honestly, I think as a team we did a good job. Again, we can argue that it would have been better to do it half a lap before or half a lap later. But when you are on the pitwall and you have to understand if the car that's behind is faster than the car in front [just because of] DRS or not, it's not an easy call. It's always much easier to do it two hours later."

He added,

"We asked them to do it. They did it. The frustration when you are in the car... I can perfectly understand this. We had a discussion [afterwards] and it was much more relaxed."

Ferrari boss reveals having a conversation with Lewis Hamilton

Fred Vasseur felt that one of the reasons why there was frustration from Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc was because both the drivers are competitive beasts, and did not want to cede positions at any point. Vasseur revealed that he had a chat with Hamilton after the race, as he said,

"The issue at this stage of the race is to understand if the car behind is faster than the car in front, or if it's just the DRS effect. [After the race] I had a discussion with Lewis and I can perfectly understand the frustration. They are champions."

He added,

"They want to win races. We are asking them to let their team-mates go. It's not easy. It's never easy. And I didn't see another team do it today. That is why we took the responsibility to do it because it's the policy of the team. We are racing for Ferrari first."

It would be interesting to see if the team does make a few changes. The car is not in great shape right now, and a stronger result is the boost that the team needs at this stage.