Fred Vasseur called out FOM for trying to “create the mess” at Ferrari by only broadcasting a handful of Lewis Hamilton’s messages to the team during his battle with Charles Leclerc.

The Ferrari team-mates locked out the third row of the grid for Sunday’s 56-lap Chinese Grand Prix and suffered their first, but probably not last, clash of the season as they tangled through Turns 2 and 3.

The full story behind the Lewis Hamilton Chinese GP swap

As they battled for track position on the opening lap, Leclerc clipped Hamilton’s Ferrari in the Turn 2 and 3 sequence and lost his front wing endplate in the process.

While that cost the Monegasque driver “20 to 30” points of downforce, he accepted it was a racing incident – “not the first and last time it will happen“.

Although he slotted in behind him and was suffering with the loss of downforce, Leclerc was able to stick to his team-mate’s rear wing which led to a bit of radio chatter that began on lap 18 of the 56-lap race.

F1 2025: Ferrari team-mate head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Not all of that chatter though, was broadcast by FOM who selectively went with Hamilton’s engineer Riccardo Adami telling the Briton that they would let Leclerc through at Turn 14 followed by footage of Hamilton driving through Turn 14 with Leclerc still plastered to his rear wing.

The next messages out were Adami again telling Hamilton to swap at Turn 14, only for the Briton to respond: “When he’s closer, yeah.”

FOM next went to Leclerc’s “this is a shame, the pace is there” message as Hamilton let him through at Turn 1 on lap 21.

But given that the suggestion to swap positions actually came from Hamilton to start with, Vasseur has called out FOM for trying to create drama.

“I think this is a joke from FOM because the first call came from Lewis,” he told the media in Shanghai. “Lewis asked us to swap, but to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they broadcast only the second part of the question.

“I will discuss with them.”

The Ferrari team boss revealed Ferrari had already spoken with the drivers about doing what is “best” for Ferrari in the pre-race briefing.*

“Yeah,” he insisted. “I think we have to work for the team and to consider that we have to do the best for Ferrari, and it’s agreed between the cars and the drivers before the race, and it’s not an issue.

“It’s even the best proof of this is that it came from the drivers that ‘okay, I’m losing the pace that I am keen to swap’.”

The full ewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc radio transcripts

Lap 18
Lewis Hamilton: I think I’m gonna let Charles go because I’m struggling.
Riccardo Adami: Understood.

Later in the lap
Ricciardo Adami: We’re going to swap the cars into Turn 14, one-four.
Bryan Bozzi: And Lewis will let you by into Turn 14.

Hamilton did not let Leclerc pass.

Lap 19:
Riccardo Adami: We are swapping cars, Turn 14.
Lewis Hamilton: I will when he’s closer.

Lap 20:
Lewis Hamilton: If he can’t get the cars ahead, he can let us… out his way. Right now I’m closing up a little bit.
Riccardo Adami: Okay understood.
Bryan Bozzi: This is what he’s been told.
Riccardo Adami: Do we want to swap this now?
Lewis Hamilton: I’ll tell you when we’re going to swap.
Charles Leclerc: This is a shame. The pace is there.

Hamilton then let Leclerc through at Turn 1.

Lap 21:
Bryan Bozzi: Well done, sorry about that. Keep pushing. SOC 6 when you want.
Bryan Bozzi: So you are the fastest car out there. Let’s go, Charles.

Leclerc and Hamilton finished fifth and sixth but were disqualified hours after the Grand Prix due to technical infringements. Leclerc’s car was found to be 1kg under the minimum weight while Hamilton’s SF-25 had excessive skid block wear.

Ferrari fell to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with just 17 points on the board, 71 behind the pace-setting McLaren team.

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