Vasseur defends Verstappen from Hamilton criticism: 'Sport's different'

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen voiced his concerns with his team's strategy on multiple occasions over the team radio. The Dutchman was clearly unsatisfied, leading him to talk explicitly to his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. Lewis Hamilton was critical of the Dutchman, however, the Briton's future team principal, Frederic Vasseur, argued in favour of Verstappen.

Talking to GPblog and others at the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton declared Verstappen should have handled things differently a week ago at the Hungaroring. "As a team leader, as a team member, as a teammate, you have to act like a World Champion," the seven-time world champion argued.

Ferrari team principal, Frederic Vasseur, however, did not agree with his future driver on the matter. "I don't see the link with Lewis on this," the Frenchman first intended to remove the Briton from the conversation. He then continued: "I'm sorry. I don't know if I have to be politically correct or not. We have to take into account that we are the only sport in the world where the players talk on the radio during the match, or the race. I'm not sure if you put a microphone on a football player it would be much better. Even on the referees sometimes."

"Does this mean we need to calm down with this too, or switch off the microphone? I'm not sure it's a step forward for the issue. I will discuss it with Lewis," Vasseur concluded.