Pundit feels Lewis Hamilton played a role in Ferrari extending Fred Vasseur's contract

Veteran F1 pundit Joe Saward has claimed that Lewis Hamilton had a part to play in Ferrari renewing team principal Frederic Vasseur's contract. The Italian team announced the extension just prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Vasseur was awarded a multiple-year deal.

On July 31, Ferrari announced that team principal Fred Vasseur has signed a contract extension, which will see the Frenchman remain at the team for multiple years. The Maranello-based outfit explained that they were determined to "build on the foundations" laid by Vasseur since he took over the role in 2023.

This came after months of speculation about the 57-year-old's future at his current team. F1 pundit and journalist Joe Saward believes that the Italian team's new star, Lewis Hamilton, had a role to play in Vasseur receiving the contract extension.

"I think that Lewis’s intervention probably played a fairly important role in Ferrari finally decided to keep Fred Vasseur," Saward claimed via his personal blog, named joeblogsf1.

"Ferrari has long had the very bad habit of throwing out its leadership every three or four years but the news that Vasseur will stay is a sign that (perhaps) the top management has finally understood that it is best to keep the same people and let them build what they can before they are thrown into the mincer at Maranello," he added.

Saward also claimed that Vasseur received "a complete lack of support" from the top management at Ferrari in recent months. The Briton believes this to reflect the fact that the team was not very certain about continuing with their incumbent team boss.

Reports earlier in July also claimed that Ferrari were considering bringing in a new pair of hands to work as a bridge between Vasseur and the top management, which includes CEO Benedetto Vigna and then chairman John Elkann. There have been no updates on this front in recent days.

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Joe Saward downplays Lewis Hamilton's comments at the Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton's comments about him being useless and that Ferrari should consider a change of driver caused a big stir within the F1 paddock during the Hungarian GP. But Joe Saward feels that comments do not reflect the 7x world champion's long-term commitment to the Italian team.

Writing for his blog on August 8, Saward labeled these comments by Hamilton as purely "thoughts of the moment".

"This [Hamilton's comments] seemed to be the thoughts of the moment, rather than any long-term thinking," wrote Saward.

"Lewis had previously explained that he was working hard to get Ferrari moving in the right direction and was not about to waltz off to his next career," he added.

Hamilton had made these comments after he qualified in P12 for the Hungarian GP while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, qualified on pole. The Briton even finished the race in 12th, having made no progress, marking his toughest weekend in the scarlet red colors so far.