Ferrari boss laughs as he shares new nickname for Lewis Hamilton | F1 | Sport
Frederic Vasseur laughed for 15 seconds straight after confirming what he had called Lewis Hamilton over the radio after the Canadian Grand Prix. Spirits were high, particularly in the Brit’s side of the Ferrari garage after a strong race saw Hamilton secure his best Grand Prix result with the team to date.
He had strong pace for most of the Grand Prix and was able to use it to push for a place on the podium. He inherited third place when George Russell suddenly pulled over with an engine failure while he was leading. But things got even better late on with an eye-catching overtake on Max Verstappen which cemented both second place and the fan-voted Driver of the Day award.
Hamilton was congratulated over the radio by his race engineer before team principal Vasseur also came onto the airwaves to saw well done. And a few eyebrows were raised as he referred to his driver as ‘Luigi’ – the Italian-language equivalent of the anglicised name Lewis.
When Sky Sports pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz asked Vasseur to repeat what he had called his driver, the Frenchman confirmed what he had said and proceeded to laugh heartily about it for around 15 seconds. When he had finally stopped giggling, the Ferrari chief was happy to give his verdict on what was one of his British driver’s best days with the Scuderia.
Vasseur said: “It was a very strong performance today, the conditions were mega difficult. You were struggling to recover and, to come back, he was able to push from the beginning to the end. He had confidence and he did a very strong race, and strong weekend overall.”
Even though he finished fourth to add more strong points, it was a tougher weekend for Charles Leclerc. Vasseur said of the Monegasque: “On Charles’ side, on this side of the garage, it was more a matter of confidence over the weekend. He struggled much more than Lewis over the weekend and, in these conditions, it’s good to bring the car back in at the end to score good points. Let’s come back stronger next week.”
The result will be a huge confidence boost for Hamilton who was beaming throughout all his post-race interviews. It may also go some way towards quieting the increasing speculation over his future which has made plenty of headlines in recent weeks. Hamilton said earlier in the weekend that he has a contract for 2027 and Vasseur was not willing to engage in talk about any rumours about his driver’s retirement plans.
He said: “All of this is just about rumours and gossip and such. We don’t have to comment or to answer this. We know what we are doing, we know that we have a clear target and goal and that we are pushing together as a team. You can write whatever you want.”
