Fred Vasseur defends the team orders chaos at Ferrari during the F1 2025 Miami GP as the team principal insists the commands were well executed at the Miami International Autodrome on May 4.
Based on recent form, few were likely expecting conflict between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton after they qualified eighth and 12th on Saturday, but a convenient virtual safety car put them close together after Oliver Bearman stopped on track.
Hamilton, who had began on the hards in a bid to recover his weekend, switched to the quicker mediums whilst his teammate went in the opposite direction and that proved to be the perfect cocktail for disaster for the Scuderia.
The pit wall showed in-decision and inaction to both of their drivers when they requested to swap positions with their teammates and left them very frustrated as they watched their race prospects slowly fade away.
Yet Vasseur believes they did little wrong as the boss defends the Ferrari team orders chaos operationally, although he is sympathetic to the drivers from a racing point of view.
“I can understand the frustration of the guys in the car,” Vasseur told Sky Sports F1. “But in the end it was well executed.
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“Because Lewis was behind Charles and he was with the softer compound. We let him go and as per the rules, the inter-team rules, we swapped back at the end.
“I think we gave the chance to Lewis to go in front but it was impossible to overtake between them if we don’t let them go.
“And I think there was the opportunity for Lewis to catch up [Antonelli]. I think we did a good job.
“You need to understand in this situation if you are faster than the car in front of you because you have the DRS or because you have the pace.
“We took one lap to take the decision and one lap to apply the decision.”
How did Ferrari team orders chaos unfold in Miami?
The Brit capitalised on a bold move from the Monegasque into Turn 1 on Carlos Sainz and nearly overtook the pair of them, but Leclerc managed to cling on just ahead; although the 40-year-old behind was faster.
Yet he wasn’t quick enough to overtake cleanly in Miami without taking a big risk, and opted to inform the team he had a pace advantage for two different reasons. The first being to avoid a crash, and the second being to protect his tyres.
But Ferrari took their time making a decision and the seven-time world champion became increasingly annoyed over the radio as he burned up his tyres and lost valuable laps pushing.
Eventually he got the go-ahead to chase after Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes, but couldn’t quite manage to reel in the 18-year-old Italian and failed to pull a gap to his teammate; who was still sat in DRS.
The 27-year-old then pointed out he was faster than Hamilton as the hard tyres took over the mediums in performance, but Ferrari also took their time swapping the cars around again as Antonelli edged away and escaped Leclerc by 1.5 seconds at the flag.
Finally, the call came through and the 105-time race winner surrendered his seventh place and added a sarcastic comment to Ricciardo Adami that summed up the mood after being told the gap to Sainz, by quipping, “Do you want me to let him past as well?”
