Fred Vasseur bemoans Lewis Hamilton Singapore GP pit call: 'A bit of a shame'

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur believes Lewis Hamilton's poor call cost him a podium in the Singapore Grand Prix.

When a virtual safety car was called on lap 39 for Aston Martin's Lance Stroll retiring with a clutch issue, it opened up a small window of opportunity for a pit stop.

Charles Leclerc took full advantage to switch to another fresh set of tyres, and Hamilton, running three seconds behind, should have followed his team-mate into the pits, only to instead stay out.

It was a decision that backfired for the seven-time F1 champion for although he slotted into second place behind eventual race winner Max Verstappen, on age-old softs that ran for 44 laps, he finished sixth behind Verstappen, Leclerc, Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. 

At the chequered flag, Hamilton apologised to his team for the decision he made.

"We kept the door open with the two options depending on a VSC, so that was the case," said Vasseur, speaking to Sky Sports F1.

"We called them both to pit, that it would have been P2 and P3, but he missed the pit entry, which is a bit of a shame because he lost a podium."

Vasseur confirmed that another problem for Hamilton was that he started on the medium tyres, opposite to Leclerc on the softs, but with the opportunity on the rubber offset to potentially attack polesitter Verstappen by strategy.

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Vasseur - We all ran blind

Unfortunately for Hamilton, the yellow-striped compound did not prove as robust as had been hoped, with Hamilton pitting at the end of lap 18 to take on the softs he then ran to the finish.

"The main issue, and it was true for us, true for everybody, that on the grid you are 50-50 [with tyre choice]," said Vasseur. "In FP1 you don't do so many laps, and we all did laps with the hard [tyres] that we didn't touch for the race.

"We were expecting to do the long stint [on the medium] in the sprint, but the sprint race was with intermediate, so we all went into the race completely blind with the tyres.

"Today, the soft was much better than the medium. It's why Lewis struggled at the beginning and a bit less at the end. We were all in the same situation, starting the race a bit blind.

"It's true that for us, with the two cars two and three [on the grid], it was a good opportunity for us to take the fight to Max."

Overall, Vasseur was happy with the weekend after Hamilton and Leclerc finished second and third in the sprint, before the two, six in the grand prix.

"It's a good weekend," said Vasseur. "We did P2 and P3 in the sprint; P2 and P3 in quali; P2 [in the race] and we were not far away from P3.

"Overall, over the weekend, Max was a bit faster than us. We have to try to catch up, but overall, it was a strong performance from the team, from the two drivers, and a good result for us."