Fred Vasseur has steered he’ll talk about group orders with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the Italian Grand Prix.
Till now, the Ferrari group principal has been reticent to implement them and was fast to focus on how McLaren would have handed Max Verstappen the F1 drivers’ championship final season if the Woking-based squad had backed Oscar Piastri at this stage of the marketing campaign.
Nevertheless, with Hamilton’s benefit over Leclerc rising to 36 factors after the Monegasque driver crashed out at Monza, Vasseur has indicated a willingness to contemplate them.
The topic got here acutely again into focus on the Temple of Velocity, when the 2 drivers clashed by way of the opening chicane on the primary lap, which price Hamilton dearly.
The seven-time F1 drivers’ champion had obtained up the within of his team-mate into Flip 1, which put him on the skin for Flip 2, with Leclerc — meant or in any other case — shuffling him out extensive onto the gravel.
Hamilton dropped to tenth, costing the Scuderia any alternative to work collectively strategically. Not that it could matter, with Leclerc crashing closely on the Curva Alboreto (the Parabolica) the next lap.
Vasseur, nevertheless, didn’t wish to speak concerning the first lap incident till he had been given the prospect to handle it along with his drivers.
“I spoke with Lewis for 2 seconds, and by no means with Charles, so we’ve got had no time to debate it,” he responded to media, together with RacingNews365, when requested if he had spoken to his drivers concerning the incident on the primary lap.
When the follow-up pressed him on whether or not he had any ideas on what occurred, Vasseur replied: “No, I want to debate with them first moderately than with you first.”
McLaren and Max Verstappen comparability
Hamilton has been calling for Ferrari to begin prioritising him in his bid for a record-breaking eighth F1 drivers’ championship, however he slumped to 76 factors adrift of Kimi Antonelli after his sixth-place end at Monza.
The 41-year-old referred to as out the Italian group in his post-race media duties, lamenting the shortage of guidelines of engagement, one thing he believes have to be addressed, notably after his conflict with Leclerc.
And as for the potential for the Prancing Horse throwing its weight behind him, Hamilton added: “It is too late for these choices to come back. It is many, many weeks too late.”
Vasseur, however, sees the scenario otherwise, and feels that solely now’s it the time to contemplate enacting group orders.
“For positive, the end result of [Turns] 1 and a pair of shouldn’t be good for the group, if that is the query,” the Frenchman mentioned, opening up concerning the first lap.
“Now, to see if we’ve got a group order or no matter, I believe that the great comparability that I made was that final yr Piastri was main McLean at this stage of the season, and if McLaren put every little thing on Piastri, Max Verstappen would have been champion.”
“However for positive, at one stage you must decide. However I believe it was too early to decide earlier than Monza. Now we’ve got time to debate with the fellows.”
