The high-stakes drama witnessed at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez during the Mexico City GP forced Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur to take immediate disciplinary action. The French boss convened a joint closed-door meeting on Thursday night in Sao Paulo to clear the air following a fiery on-track collision between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc right from the opening lap of the race.
The fierce wheel-to-wheel battle on lap one saw both star drivers run off the track, handing a crucial advantage to Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen and destroying what should have been a comfortable one-two finish for the Italian outfit. Hamilton was visibly furious over team radio and demanded serious talks, arguing that his teammate had crossed the line with excessive aggression. Meanwhile, the management felt immense frustration on behalf of the two thousand factory employees in Maranello whose tireless efforts were squandered by intra-team rivalry.
Speaking to the media ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, Vasseur insisted that the message delivered to both drivers was loud and unambiguous: the team comes first. "The guidelines are always the same. They are two competitors with a fighting spirit for sure, but they need to have respect for each other," Vasseur stated regarding the strict internal protocol established after the clear-the-air talks.
Vasseur further elaborated on the core philosophy, "But mainly and firstly, they need to respect the brand, the team, the people working at home, the people working on track. I think we are putting a lot of effort on this and the message was clear and will stay clear." Addressing Hamilton's claims that Leclerc races him harder than other rivals, Vasseur defended the Monegasque driver by highlighting his brilliant overtaking maneuver against Verstappen in Austin as proof of hard yet fair racing boundaries.
Concluding his remarks on the team's weekend fallout, Vasseur admitted that the Mexican Grand Prix represented a collective failure to maximize their potential. "For sure, in this situation, we failed collectively because we were one and two and we didn't win the race at the end. That means that it's clear that we failed and we have to react," he said. The swift intervention aims to realign both drivers toward the ultimate goal of defending the Prancing Horse pride for the Tifosi.
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