Fred Vasseur has urged Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari to "calm down" after the seven-time F1 champion's early struggles with the team.
Hamilton was downbeat after qualifying for the Bahrain GP, claiming a lowly ninth, in contrast to team-mate Charles Leclerc who started on the front row and who went on to finish fourth.
After his poor qualifying, Hamilton showed strong pace in the race, briefly running second to Leclerc through the first pit-stop cycle before going on to take fifth, his best grand prix result for the Scuderia to date.
The Briton spoke at length about his adaptation struggles to the Ferrari after 12 seasons with Mercedes, but Vasseur - who worked with Hamilton in the junior categories - feels fine margins are making the difference for the 40-year-old as he urged the team to remain composed.
"After [the sprint race] in China, we were speaking about the prize-giving ceremony, and after the race in China, it was a total disaster," Vasseur told media, including RacingNews365.
"In terms of management, we have to take it easy, to calm down as the issue is that, probably for us, the ups are a bit higher and the downs are a bit lower.
"It means that if we want to keep a consistent approach, which we did very well in the last two years, we have to stay calm to improve hundredths of seconds by hundredths of seconds.
"I understand the frustration of [Saturday] evening because if you have a look from FP1 to Q2, he was a tenth, plus or minus with Charles.
"Then you arrive into Q3 and the first lap is deleted and on the second one, he made a mistake and then you pay the price because the grid is not made up of the average, but on the last lap.
"For sure there is a bit of frustration for him, but also for us. He had a very strong recovery, had a solid race and came back in P5.
"The race time compared to the top two or three is almost similar and that means for me, it was okay, and he was very strong and consistent.
"But with the field we have now, if you miss two or three-tenths in qualifying because you made a mistake, you will lose six or seven positions."
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