Lewis Hamilton has paid tribute to Fred Vasseur, describing the "really, really tough" time for the Ferrari boss after Hamilton's "vocal" demands.
Hamilton finally claimed his first grand prix victory for Ferrari, doing so in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, at the 31st attempt to end a 686-day win drought, going back to the 2024 Belgian GP for Mercedes.
He is the first driver to ever win a grand prix for McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari, with the win being his 106th.
One area in which Hamilton struggled during his torrid 2025 season was with the brakes, but from the Japanese GP, he has been using Carbon Industrie brake discs in an otherwise Brembo assembly - something he had to push Vasseur for given the long-standing links with Brembo for Ferrari.
Reflecting on how Vasseur had helped him through the tough times, Hamilton detailed how his arrival to the Scuderia "was a big shock to the system" given his "vocal" nature.
"Well, firstly, I wouldn't be in this team without Fred. Fred is the one who made it happen, for which I'm incredibly grateful to him," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.
"I think last year was really, really, really tough for him to deal with me coming; it was a big shock to the system, because I am very, very vocal if I see something that I don't think is right, or I push very, very hard.
"That's at the core of who I am, and I'm relentless with it, and I think it's not easy to be on the receiving end of that when you're also juggling a whole organisation and a culture that, that is set in a certain way.
"It was a lot for him to juggle, and I think very, very tough, because obviously he would do media as well, but he continued to believe, continued to be a good friend, continued to be a great teammate and an ally, and really supportive.
"Ultimately, he really listened at the end, and I had to really ask, really, really ask for some of the changes, and he enabled them to happen, which I'm forever grateful for, because this wouldn't have happened without those changes."
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