Fred Vasseur has grown tired of suggestions that Lewis Hamilton is struggling to adapt at Ferrari and said every driver is constantly learning.

Plenty of talk this season has been dedicated to Hamilton’s rough start at Ferrari with the former Mercedes driver yet to stand on the podium in a grand prix.

Fred Vasseur makes Lewis Hamilton Ferrari plea after Imola GP

A sprint victory in China is looking increasingly like a one-off but there were at least some signs of hope in Imola with Hamilton recovering from P12 to finish fourth in his first Italian race as a Ferrari driver.

But asked whether his view on Hamilton’s adaptation depends on his performances, team principal Vasseur retorted to media including PlanetF1.com: “I think we have to stop with this.

“Every single driver is working on himself, working with the team, trying to develop something, trying to do a better job, and it’s not that the Saturday evening he’s not well prepared, not in good condition with the car, and Sunday he’s a magician and everything is perfect, we just have to stay calm.

“For sure that we need to improve the communication, the understanding of the process and the tools and the software and everything.

“But honestly he did a very good job in China, he did a very good job today, step by step we will be there.”

Hamilton, who has often cut a frustrated figure this year, was much happier after the race, telling his race engineer that a win was possible if the car performed like it did in Imola.

Hamilton said: “Thanks so much, mate. Woo! What a great race, guys. Fantastic stops, strategy.

“The car felt great today. I’m so grateful, so proud. Grazie tutti. And the Tifosi, that was for them.

“Let’s keep pushing. If we get that qualifying better and we can race like that, then we’ll be winning.”

Speaking after he had exited the cockpit, Hamilton said he had “ideas” for how to improve the car but that he was facing internal reluctance.

“I’ve got some ideas that I’m going to try and apply this week that people have been a little bit reluctant to do it, I think because we’ve had lots of other things to focus on,” Hamilton told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“But hopefully we can find something, some more performance.

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“There’s a ton of positives. The strategy was really fantastic. They made great calls, didn’t put a foot wrong there.

“China, I felt really aligned with the car and then the only other time was today. I felt that synergy.

“The set-up was great [in Imola]. I think we made a bit of an improvement in our performance for the race.

“Just got to unlock that potential in qualifying; if we’d qualified better, we’d have been fighting for a podium.”

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