Lewis Hamilton has declared that Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has not changed since the duo first worked together back in 2005.
The seven-time world champion raced for Vasseur's ASM team in the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2005, winning the title before moving to GP2.
In GP2 in 2006, Hamilton raced for ART Grand Prix, a squad owned by the now-Ferrari team boss. Hamilton won the title in his debut season, before being promoted to F1 with McLaren in 2007.
Hamilton's move this year to Ferrari has seen the 40-year-old reunited with the Frenchman, who was a key reason why the 105-time race winner opted to leave the security of Mercedes for a shot at taking the Scuderia back to the top.
It has proven to be a challenging switch for Hamilton, who ahead of this weekend's United States Grand Prix remains without a grand prix podium since making the move to Maranello.
Despite the difficulties he has faced, Hamilton continues to support Vasseur and is enjoying being back working with the 57-year-old, who he insists has not changed at all since two decades ago.
Asked by select media including RacingNews365 in Singapore how Vasseur has changed since 2006, Hamilton answered: "Not Fred, no. Fred still wears the same clothes, and he's exactly the same as he was.
"Everything's exactly the same, generally, I would say. I always admired him heavily when I was in the lower categories. Just the way he worked with a team, he's a straight shooter, clearly a massive competitor.
"I always admired like, I came from a couple of different teams focused on where they spent their money and it was on other areas, and he was all about aerodynamics and performance, and that's what it's all about today.
"It's just all about car performance, which I think is a strength of his."
Most read
In this article
Join the conversation!