Vasser: The problems aren't as serious as they seem.

      For more than a week now the press and the racing community have been discussing Lewis Hamilton’s comments made during the Hungarian Grand Prix – because it’s hard to recall another instance when the seven-time world champion was so self-critical.

      However, according to Frédéric Vasseur, although the situation is difficult, he personally isn’t particularly worried. The head of the Ferrari team believes that Hamilton, when analysing his own work, is somewhat exaggerating the scale of the problems. You can probably trust him, since he has known Lewis for a very long time — back to when he drove for his ART team in the GP2 junior series and won the title on his first attempt in 2006.

      “Lewis is very self-critical, and it seems that he greatly exaggerates things in his judgments,” Vasseur told Auto Motor und Sport. “Sometimes he demands too much from the car, sometimes from himself. He always wants to be the best. In such situations he needs to be calmed down. With his comments he only makes things worse, even if he makes such harsh assessments only when speaking to the press.

      By the time he came to the team meeting he had already calmed down. Lewis is just that kind of person, and for me that’s not a problem. Still, you have to try to remain calm and remember that his first steps at Ferrari were quite successful. And when something goes wrong, as it did in Budapest, you can’t let such events knock you off course.

      Problems need to be solved gradually, step by step. They only seem gigantic, although in reality they are not.

      If a driver feels the braking system isn’t working perfectly, he might be losing on the order of half a tenth. But from the outside it’s often difficult to quickly determine exactly where that time was lost. Although even such a small difference in performance can ruin your whole weekend. For example, it can decide whether you are knocked out in the second part of qualifying or make it into the final.

      In Hungary, in the second qualifying session Lewis was only a tenth slower than the driver who took pole. Sometimes he tends to exaggerate the problems he notices in the car, even though they are not as serious as they seem. But the team always responds to his comments and tries to figure out what exactly isn’t working...

      When Lewis joined Ferrari, we naively thought he would be able to keep everything under control. But he is still not Carlos Sainz, who changed teams every few years and is familiar with the adaptation process. And it took Hamilton four or five races to find the right approach.”