Ferrari boss puts "trust" at center of shaky Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton relationships

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have had a shaky 2025 campaign so far, but Ferrari supremo Fred Vasseur has contained the two pilots with trust at the center of their relationships. The scarlet duo have starkly different tales with the team, and Vasseur has been able to guide the pair in their own ways to stay on board the prancing horses.

Leclerc joined Ferrari in 2019 and has driven under two different leaderships, once with Mattia Binotto as the team principal and now with Vasseur, who has been at the helm of the team since 2023. On the other hand, Hamilton is the latest addition to the list of drivers who have driven for the elusive Scuderia.

Though the pair have had varied success in their racing careers, their 2025 campaign has not been the one that they had hoped for. Leclerc has not been able to step on the top step of the podium, while Hamilton is yet to reach the rostrum in the Grand Prix format.

Moreover, weekends like the Azerbaijan GP, where the pair finished eighth and ninth, and the Singapore GP, where Leclerc finished sixth and the Briton limped home with a brake failure. This might take a toll on the Ferrari duo and their faith in the team.

But Vasseur asserts that the pair has full trust in the squad despite sub-optimal results. Reflecting on his relationship with Leclerc, he said in an interview with The Athletic:

"Sometimes we didn’t start to speak, but I know exactly what he’s thinking — And I think the opposite is true also! We have full trust. I know that sometimes, when he’s tough with the team, it’s always to help. This feeling is constructive, going in the right direction to try to build up something."

A similar trend continued while he gave his thoughts on the relationship with Lewis Hamilton:

"I would say around Barcelona (at the end of May), he came back strong. He’s improving into the composition of the team. The team is improving into the composition of Lewis. So we have to make a kind of ‘mayonnaise’ now! We need to improve step by step. I know that I can trust him and he knows that he can trust me, and this is important. He knows that I will be fully dedicated to the team performance."

On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton has not finished a race in the top five since the British GP.

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Lewis Hamilton is gearing up for the United States Grand Prix as Ferrari takes on the fourth sprint race of the season

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Singapore race weekend - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton was on course to fight out for a top-five spot at the Singapore GP until his brakes gave up. To further add salt to injury, he was given a five-second post-race penalty, which dropped him from P7 to P8.

So, with a torrid weekend behind him, the Briton looks to maximize his weekend in Texas, as he said (via F1's official website):

"So the focus now is on maximising what we have going into Austin and executing cleanly to bring home as many points as possible."

Hamilton has amassed 125 points in the 2025 season so far and sits sixth in the drivers' standings.