Fred Vasseur Explains How Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Saved Ferrari’s Day in the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at Sepang

Tyre Strategy Gamble Puts Ferrari on the Back Foot

Ferrari faced an uphill battle from the opening moments of the Grand Prix in Malaysia after an aggressive pre-race gamble backfired. While the Scuderia was not the only outfit on the grid to risk starting on slick tyres in damp conditions, their operational blunder threatened to unravel their entire Sunday within the opening laps. However, rather than succumbing to the setback, the team executed an aggressive recovery drive, culminating in Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc crossing the line in third and fourth position to limit the damage in the championship fight.

Reflecting on the calculated risk to avoid intermediate tyres on the starting grid, Team Principal Fred Vasseur acknowledged the split mindset across the paddock and the harsh reality of the outcome. “I think 50 percent of the cars went for slicks, 50 for wets,” said Team Principal Fred Vasseur of the tyre choice. “You can’t try, you just have a look on the tarmac in front of you in the pit lane, and for sure it was not the good one.

“It’s not that I have no regrets – for sure, it’s clear that it was better to start with inters, but we did the choice with information that we had.” In essence, historical expectations around the Sepang surface did not align with reality, as the track dried considerably slower than forecasters and pit walls anticipated.

“When you have to take your decision, you are trying to base the decision on good parameters,” said Vasseur. “But for sure, at the end of the day, we have to be lucid that it was not the right call, that it would have been much better for us to start with inters. But we were considering that it will dry very quickly, and so on. The pit stop [loss] was quite long also, 26 seconds.”

Diverging Paths: Hamilton’s Soft Stint and Leclerc’s First-Lap Incident

The strategic misstep produced immediate fallout on track for both drivers. Charles Leclerc’s afternoon was complicated almost instantly following contact with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg at the start. The incident forced the Monegasque driver into the pit lane without delay to switch to intermediate tyres and replace a damaged front wing, dropping him deep into the running order.

While numerous rivals who had also opted for slicks quickly abandoned the strategy—some diving into the pits before even completing the first flying lap—Lewis Hamilton chose to remain out on track, arguing that taking an extreme strategic risk was his best option to retain track potential.

“We let him [have] the choice,” said Vasseur. “At the end, in this situation, they are in the car. When we are telling him that we are ready, it’s just to tell him that he can pit if he thinks that it’s the right call.

“He did a very good race, very smooth strategy. He was able to do a mega long stint with a very good tyre management with the soft.”

Underlying Pace Masks What Could Have Been

Although Ferrari’s final results were aided in the closing stages by a late retirement for George Russell and battery trouble that left Isack Hadjar defenceless against the charging red cars, the pace of the SF package was the defining factor behind the turnaround. Hamilton’s exceptional tyre management allowed him to push deep into his soft-compound stint while setting competitive lap times.

Pondering whether a win or double podium was lost by missing the initial intermediate window, Vasseur remained pragmatic about traffic dynamics. “I don’t know, because the race is for sure different when you have to overtake 20 cars rather than run in front,” said Vasseur. “But I was not mega optimistic after Lap 1! You never know also because with dirty air, it’s much more difficult, energy management and so on.

“But the pace was solid, and when Lewis was at the end of his stint with the soft, he was still doing a very good lap time.”

Vasseur noted that the underlying performance was fundamentally stronger than at previous venues like Baku, even though track conditions swung violently throughout the event. “We showed the same pace yesterday,” said Vasseur. “We were on the first row, but we were also on the first row in Baku. But the race pace was much better this weekend.

“It’s also completely different conditions. The last two or three races we had zero [degradation]. This weekend the race was also difficult to manage for the drivers, because we did all the free practice with 60 degrees of track temp, and then you do the race with 30 degrees less, and it’s another track.

“We were all a bit lost. I think when we restarted after the Safety Car, at one stage you had seven cars with soft, seven with medium, seven with hard. It’s not very usual.”

Why This Matters

Ferrari’s ability to turn an opening-lap disaster into a haul of 27 points demonstrates significant operational resilience, a critical trait as the team seeks consistency across varied track layouts. Despite the tactical misread on weather and track evolution, the car’s baseline speed in cooler temperatures and reduced dirty-air degradation indicates that recent aerodynamic and mechanical balance updates are paying off.

With the demanding street circuit of Singapore immediately ahead, extracting genuine race pace from soft compounds in fluctuating temperatures gives Maranello a crucial foundation. When asked about carrying this momentum into the next round, Vasseur kept the focus on short-term recovery before shifting attention to Marina Bay.

“Let me have a beer tonight, and we discuss about Singapore tomorrow morning!” joked Vasseur. “It will be another one, for sure. But each one is different, and let’s see.

“We were expecting to do a good performance this weekend. I think we did it. We are expecting to do also a good one next week – and I hope we’ll do it.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Ferrari start the race on slick tyres?

Team Principal Fred Vasseur explained that the pit wall expected the Sepang track surface to dry out very quickly based on historical trends. With roughly half the field gambling on dry compounds, Ferrari took the risk using the data they had, though the track ultimately took far longer to clear standing water than predicted.

How did Lewis Hamilton manage to finish third after staying on slicks?

Hamilton chose to extend his stint and take the strategic risk rather than pit immediately. Once track conditions aligned with slick rubber, he leveraged superior tyre preservation on the soft compound, maintaining quick lap times over an exceptionally long stint and capitalizing on late-race issues for George Russell and Isack Hadjar.

What caused Charles Leclerc’s early pit stop?

Leclerc suffered contact with Nico Hulkenberg on the opening lap, requiring an emergency pit stop for a front-wing replacement alongside a mandatory tyre change to intermediate rubber, which forced him to fight through the field from the back.