Frederic Vasseur conceded that 2025 was a "difficult" year for Lewis Hamilton and the whole team as the Ferrari boss was quizzed about the impact of their mega-money signing. The seven-time Formula 1 champion was handed the sport's most lucrative contract ever to join from Mercedes in the hope of ending Ferrari's long title drought.

But the wait goes on after a tough year in 2025 which saw both Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc fail to win a single Grand Prix. Leclerc was, at least, a consistent performer and stood on seven podiums, while his British partner failed to score even one and achieved little in his first year as a Ferrari driver, other than a Sprint race win in China which provided some early-season joy.

The end of the campaign was particularly grim, as Hamilton qualified in the bottom five at each of the final three Grands Prix of the year and scored just 14 points in total across the final five race weekends, which included two Sprints. He finished sixth in the drivers' championship, having scored 86 points fewer than Leclerc, while Ferrari were fourth in ther constructors' standings.

Instead of talking more about Hamilton's struggles, one reporter asked team principal Vasseur what he felt the seven-time champion had contributed to the team. And the Frenchman replied to say he felt Hamilton had been critical in helping staff to pick themselves up after difficult moments.

Vasseur said: "The season was difficult. I think it's a mathematical contestation, not a feeling. But the most important is the reaction. The most important is the energy that you are putting in to push the team again and again, to try to understand what the issues are and to fix them - and it's details by details.

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"For sure, we knew that it would be difficult from the first quarter of the season. But at the end of the day, when we had podiums in a row [in Austin and Mexico], I think it's the job of everybody. It's not the job of one driver or one engineer - it's the job of 1,500 people at the factory, from the two drivers, from all the engineers. Collectively, the reaction was good, and Lewis is part of the reaction, for sure."

New engine and car design regulations for the upcoming 2026 season present an opportunity to Ferrari. Equally, the Scuderia could be doomed to more years of torment if they do not hit the ground running in F1's new era. Vasseur feels the mental boost given by their performance improvements as last season went on, coupled with the decision to switch development focus to their next car earlier than originally planned, is "the best preparation" for the new campaign.

He added: "The most important is that we agreed quite early that we would put a maximum of energy on the future. That means then we have to react as a team, even when you have tough weekends, to come back Monday morning at the factory and continue to push and develop and work all together. We had a good reaction to tough sessions and tough weekends. Let's see next year [2026] if we did a good job this season also."