Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur ‘unlocked’ a version of Lewis Hamilton McLaren and Mercedes have ‘never seen’

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Lewis Hamilton will reunite with his old team boss Fred Vasseur when he joins Ferrari next year. He last worked with the Frenchman when he was still racing in the junior categories.

Vasseur founded the ASM team that fielded Hamilton in European F3 in 2005. And he was also in charge of the ART squad who helped him win the GP2 title a year later.

It was until 2016, by which point Hamilton was already a double world champion, that Vasseur took on a role within Formula 1. After a year as the team principal of Renault, he assumed the same position at Sauber.

Sauber, who were known as Alfa Romeo from 2019 to 2023, race with Ferrari power units. The Scuderia were impressed with Vasseur’s work at the Swiss team and recruited him at the end of 2022.

It’s been a successful appointment thus far. While they finished third in the constructors’ championship behind Mercedes last year, they were the only team not named Red Bull to win a race (Carlos Sainz in Singapore).

And with three races to go this year, Ferrari have a chance of winning their first constructors’ title since 2008. After bagging five wins and 18 podiums, they sit just 36 points behind McLaren.

Will Buxton says Fred Vasseur could bring out the ‘most potent’ version of Lewis Hamilton yet

Speaking to Racer’s YouTube channel, F1TV’s Will Buxton recalled that Vasseur ‘created the most potent version’ of Hamilton during his junior career. Of all the graduates currently in F1, Hamilton had the best record in F2 (or GP2 as it was known then).

Buxton says that, despite his record-breaking success, F1 has never seen the ‘rawness’ and freedom that characterised Hamilton in those days. He feels McLaren in particular ‘restricted’ the Briton.

As a result, he’s enormously excited to see him work with Vasseur once again. Buxton believes the Ferrari chief could oversee the ‘greatest comeback’ in sports history.

“I also think linking up with Fred Vasseur is a brilliant way to go full circle,” he said. “Fred was his team boss in Formula 3 and GP2 and, I believe fervently, created the most potent version of Lewis Hamilton that ever existed.

“And I include the seven-time Formula 1 world champion version of Lewis Hamilton. The rawness of that kid in Formula 3 and GP2 – we’ve never seen that on tap in Formula 1. We’ve never seen that unlocked.

“It was always, when he was at McLaren, they were trying to restrict him, pigeonhole him. Even at Mercedes, he was never that free.

“And now he’s Sir Lewis Hamilton, the greatest of all time, and he gets to hook up with the team boss who really was in love with that raw version of Lewis. If he can help Lewis to untap that version of himself again, it’s going to be the greatest comeback that sport’s ever seen.”

Lewis Hamilton’s 2004 message to Fred Vasseur shows he’s realising a dream at Ferrari

There are signs from the outside that Hamilton’s relationship with Toto Wolff may have suffered. Wolff apparently feels hurt by the 105-time race-winner’s exit, having previously expressed confidence that he wouldn’t join Ferrari.

Equally, Hamilton was ‘upset’ with Mercedes for showing a lack of ‘commitment’ in contract negotiations last year. They ended up giving him a one-plus-one contract with the option to let him go at the end of 2024.

Wolff texted Ferrari counterpart Vasseur when he got wind of Hamilton’s upcoming move. But he didn’t receive a reply as they tried to keep the seismic transfer under wraps.

According to Vasseur, Hamilton has had Ferrari ‘in mind’ since 2004. He was already on Mercedes’ books by that point, but he made it clear that racing for the Prancing Horse was one of his dreams in F1.