Ferrari defend team order chaos: 'It took one lap'

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has attempted to shield the Italian squad from criticism after it came under fire for its handling of team orders during the Miami Grand Prix.

The Frenchman argued the decision to switch Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Florida "didn't take so long" after it was widely mooted the apparent delay cost the British driver the opportunity to attack Kimi Antonelli up the road in sixth.

Hamilton himself could not hide his dissatisfaction over team radio, chastising the slow response from the Maranello-based outfit, sarcastically suggesting members of the crew "have a tea break" during the race.

However, in Vasseur's opinion, the Scuderia was far more reactive than it was being suggested, highlighting some of the factors involved in reaching a correct call.

"It didn't take so long – it was one lap and a half or something like that," Vasseur told media including RacingNews365.

"And when you have two cars not with the same strategy, the first thing for me to understand [is] if it's faster when you are behind due to the DRS or not.

"It took one lap, it means that it's one minute 30 to understand, and then we asked them to swap. Honestly, you can argue at the end that we would have been better to do it directly, but we didn't know if it was the DRS effect or not.

"And I think we take the tough decision, because it's never easy to ask Charles or Lewis to swap. But we did it, and they did it on track. I didn’t see a lot of teams doing it."

Once that swap did take place, Hamilton struggled to make inroads towards the Mercedes ahead.

Whilst the seven-time drivers' champion had a tyre compound advantage over Antonelli, he made it clear he had used much of his medium Pirellis trailing his team-mate before Ferrari invoked team orders.

Therefore, the Prancing Horse opted to switch him back behind Leclerc, with the Monegasque driver ultimately leading home Hamilton in seventh and eight, respectively.

When asked about that decision, Vasseur outlined why the reversal was made, despite Leclerc seeming unbothered about a further change.

"Because it's the policy of the team that if you ask them to swap, because if you don't ask them to swap, they don't overtake," the 56-year-old explained.

"If you ask them to swap, it's because we think that the second car is faster than the first one at the stage of the race.

"We try to catch up the guy who is in front, and if we don't do it, we swap back to respect the initial position at the stage of the race when it was clear that we wouldn't be able to fight Antonelli with Lewis."