Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says he is unbothered by criticism from his drivers in the media pen after disappointing races.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc endured a frustrating season with the Scuderia, with the team failing to win a race for the first time since 2021 and finishing a distant fourth in the constructors’ championship.

Hamilton, in particular, was regularly outspoken in his criticism of this year’s car, with the 40-year-old Briton failing to secure a podium for the first time in 19 F1 seasons.

Ferrari chairman John Elkann last month encouraged Hamilton and Leclerc to “focus on driving and talk less” but Vasseur, who signed a new contract in July despite Ferrari’s shortcomings in 2025, believes the two drivers simply want to push the team forward internally.

“I don’t pay attention to the reaction in the TV pen,” said Vasseur after the season finale in Abu Dhabi, where Leclerc finished in fourth and Hamilton in eighth.

“The most important for me is to have a guy coming back to us and pushing the team to do a better job and to work all together to try to get better results.

“The fact that they are emotional sometimes on the radio and it depends on the guys... all of you know Charles. [He] is always a bit critical with himself first and with the team and with everybody, but it’s always with a positive dynamic.

“I know Charles for 10 years, 16 years and he was always like this. He was always complaining about everything. But it’s a positive dynamic that we are there just to do a better job.

“It doesn’t matter if you are P4, P3, P1. The DNA is to do a better job. I accept this perfectly and the most important [thing] for me is that they keep the same approach to the debriefing. To try to get a better car, a better team, a better everything and it’s like this that we will improve.”

Leclerc did finish on the podium seven times throughout the season but, like Hamilton, a win never looked on the cards for the Scuderia amid dominance from McLaren and Red Bull. That being said, Mercedes also claimed two victories with George Russell.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton did not win a race all season (Getty)

“I would be destroyed if I had the drivers telling me that we are doing a good job,” Vasseur added. “The summary of the season for a driver is to find where we can improve. Always that I’m not there to have [drivers telling me] ‘we are doing a good job on this and this and this’.

“But their DNA and my DNA is to try to push the team to do a better job. It means they have to come to us, Charles and Lewis, when it’s not Lewis, it’s Charles, it’s both of them. They have to come to us and to push the team on the limit. Everywhere, on every single area and for sure, we can improve and we can improve everywhere.

“But last year, we were fighting until the last corner and the reaction was exactly the same. And Charles said, ‘OK guys, we have to improve on every single area. The simulator, the set-up, the aero[dynamics]’.

“This is the DNA of their job and the DNA of our sport. I’m not shocked at all when they are coming to me and say, Fred, we have to improve on this, this, this, this, this because it’s what we are asking them to do.”

The 2026 F1 season, with new engine and chassis regulations which threaten to shake up the pecking order, starts on 8 March in Australia.