’No regrets’ for Vasseur as Ferrari tempers heat up

Things are starting to heat up in the red cockpits at Ferrari.

Until now, team boss Frederic Vasseur has almost blankly refused to speak at length about 2025 - when Lewis Hamilton rather than Carlos Sainz will be Charles Leclerc’s teammate.

As a result, Sainz is in red-hot form at present and he searches for a new team for next year and beyond - with even Leclerc admitting that "it’s as simple as he’s doing a better job".

Some think Vasseur might be justified for having regrets about choosing Hamilton or Leclerc over Sainz.

"Regrets, that’s not the word," he told Ouest France newspaper from Shanghai. "I have enormous respect and admiration for Carlos.

"I spent ten years trying to work with him, and I will have had him for two seasons with some exceptional times. He took me to my first podium in F1!" Vasseur exclaimed.

"He creates a positive dynamic in the team, but we have choices to make in life and I think that a team today cannot not try to have Lewis."

However, the ’positive dynamic’ between Sainz and Leclerc was pushed to the brink in the Shanghai sprint race on Saturday, when the red cars went wheel-to-wheel - and collided.

"He fights me more than the others," Leclerc said on the radio.

Afterwards, the Monegasque told reporters: "It was a little too aggressive. I think Carlos went a little over the line today.

"We need to discuss this, as we always do, but Carlos and I have a great relationship. I don’t have any worries about that," Leclerc added.

Indeed, Sainz apologised publicly.

But it could be an awkward rest of the season for the red-clad drivers, even if Vasseur insists he has made the right decision for Ferrari.

"In our sport, there is also the motivation of 1500 people, and also recruitment, the building of a team, of a project," said the Frenchman.

"Lewis is unique and we also need this form of stability and reference that you don’t necessarily have when you have two young people," Vasseur added, "regardless of the talent of the drivers and the friendship that I have for them.

"With Lewis, we will have that - he’s the absolute reference at this level. He is also someone who knows how to balance his life wonderfully well between racing and outside of it, and that too will help Charles in his progress."