Hamilton sceptical as Vasseur eyes Ferrari podiums

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is targeting a return to the podium before the 2025 season is out, but Lewis Hamilton doubts the team has the speed to achieve it.

The Briton’s first year at Maranello has been disappointing, with both his own results and the car’s competitiveness underwhelming so far.

Flavio Briatore, now leading Alpine, urged Ferrari fans to keep faith. Speaking to Automoto, he pointed out that even Luca di Montezemolo needed years to bring Ferrari back to title-winning ways.

"Fred Vasseur will also solve all the team's problems at some point," the Italian predicted. Briatore believes a reset is close. "Formula 1 is very complex these days, with seven cars within two tenths of each other. This year, only McLaren is truly competitive, but next year everything will be different," he said.

"Alpine will be fighting for podium finishes again. And with the new cars, Hamilton will also be competing for victories again. He's always been fantastic."

Vasseur, though, insists strong results are possible even before the 2026 rules reset. "Yeah, because he was able to fight with Russell in Zandvoort, and coming back from P10 to the gearbox of Russell (at Monza). Russell was on the podium a couple of times this year. Yes, we can expect to be on the podium," he told reporters.

Hamilton, 40, is more cautious. Asked about the chances of climbing onto the rostrum this season, he said: "I don't think so. Charles (Leclerc) was giving it everything (at Monza). We've got Max (Verstappen) who is back up there now. We don't have the pace of Red Bull - they were rapid - and we don't have the pace of McLaren. So currently I think we are fourth, fifth."

Even Verstappen offered words of understanding for his former rival. "I can't judge how he worked at Mercedes or how he feels in the team," the Dutchman said.

"But he came to a team that already has a very strong driver in Charles. It's never easy to immediately outperform a teammate who knows the team, the processes, and the language perfectly. These cars can be very complicated to understand why you're fast or not."