Frederik Vasseur: Lewis does not concede to Charles

      Lewis Hamilton’s emotional comments after qualifying, suggesting Ferrari should find a replacement for him, prompted a reaction from the team management.

      Frederic Vasseur, team principal: "Lewis said that because he is incredibly demanding of himself, but that's exactly why he became a seven-time world champion.

      He is demanding of the team, the car, the engineers, the mechanics, of me, but most of all he is very demanding of himself.

      When you are a seven-time champion, your teammate starts on pole, and you crash out in the second part of qualifying, it’s tough. It’s hard to handle. But in fact, in the first part of qualifying, he was ahead of Charles, and in the second, he lost only ten thousandths, but that was enough to eliminate him from the battle. Charles moved on and secured pole in the final.

      But I understand Lewis's disappointment. That’s normal. With Max, it was almost the same. I spoke with Laurent Mekies – they were quite close to elimination.

      In reality, Lewis is not behind Charles and has often outperformed him in qualifying. Last weekend, at Spa, when he lost the car at Turn 14, he was running six-tenths faster than Charles.

      In the race, we took a risk; he started on Hards but got stuck in the 'DRS train.' But when there was open track ahead, he was very fast. I am confident he will be fine at Zandvoort."