Damon Hill declares ‘racing has been cancelled’ after hearing Ferrari chief Fred Vasseur’s take on the Japanese Grand Prix

The Japanese Grand Prix might have been the most successful race weekend of the season so far for Ferrari, but that doesn’t mean that either of their drivers were happy with the result.

Charles Leclerc maximised the performance of his SF-25 by qualifying and finishing fourth, while Lewis Hamilton made up a place in the race to clinch P7.

However, Hamilton complained of a ‘deficit’ with his Ferrari after the race, meanwhile, his teammate bemoaned the fact that a second row start was the maximum he could extract from the car during the Japanese Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen led from start to finish after a monumental lap in qualifying, with both McLaren driver right on his tail throughout the race.

Ted Kravitz and many F1 fans weren’t happy with the racing at Suzuka, with the inability for cars to follow closely making overtaking next to impossible on a very narrow track.

The chequered flag falls in Japan 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/4k2tc0qslJ

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 6, 2025

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has a huge task ahead of him this season, and he’s facing some very different challenges to what he might have been expecting at the start of the year.

Many wondered how Vasseur would handle Leclerc and Hamilton if they had a championship-winning car at their disposal, but now, he’s managing two star drivers who are unhappy with the competitiveness of the SF-25.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Fred Vasseur worries F1 could become a ‘qualifying championship’, Damon Hill reacts

Speaking after the race in Japan when only one overtake took place between the drivers that started in the top 10, Vasseur said in his official press conference: “I think the one-stop races is more linked to the resurfacing than something else.

“We are asking Pirelli to have a tyre with more degradation, but if we are resurfacing everywhere, we are killing the system.

“And it’s more for this reason that we are going in a one-stop race.

“For sure, quali [qualifying] was always crucial to the performance. And [the] more you are close, [the] more the gap is small between [the] cars.”

“It’s even more true because then you are in the group of cars, not that you are just one fighting with the guy in front of you. Yes, it will probably be a quali championship.”

Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill responded to Vasseur’s comments on Instagram and joked: “Racing has been cancelled.”

Although Carlos Sainz struggled in the race, he made a couple of decent overtakes going into the first corner, while Jack Doohan made up four positions during the race having started P19.

However, when a clearly superior McLaren can’t get close enough to the car in front to make a move, that raises questions about the standard of racing in Formula 1, even if Verstappen deserves immense credit for keeping Norris at bay.

READ MORE: Damon Hill uses just two words to describe Isack Hadjar after scoring his first F1 points at the Japanese Grand Prix

Ferrari face crucial F1 car update decision ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix

Vasseur’s criticism of the first three race weekends is valid, with the Australian Grand Prix an outlier due to the weather and the disqualification of three drivers in China skewing how different the results look to the starting grid at that race.

Although the likes of Oliver Bearman made up nine positions in that race, and his teammate Esteban Ocon climbed six spots, that was primarily down to strategy rather than their ability to overtake on track.

Ferrari aren’t currently in a position where this will make a huge difference.

They seem slower than both McLaren, Mercedes and Max Verstappen, while the rest of the field is some way off.

Vasseur is debating whether to introduce a new update to Ferrari’s car in Bahrain that could see them close the gap to those in front.

However, there is a risk of this backfiring, and if that happens, then they could end up being dragged into a very competitive midfield battle.