“The is f*****g bulls**t! declares Vasseur

Ferrari boss hits out at media for its unrelenting negativity over Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton has been his own harshest critic in recent weeks as he struggles to “bond” with the SF-25, but the pressure from the media has hardly helped.

Following a disappointing debut on Australia, the seven-time world champion claimed pole for the Sprint in China that followed and took a lights to flag victory next day.

And while the media lapped it up with delight, his performances in the races that followed, not to mention his own admissions of self-doubt, have led to a return to the sort of negative coverage witnessed in Melbourne.

Asked in Saudi Arabia why Hamilton’s performance had fallen off so “dramatically”, Vasseur wasn’t taking prisoners.

“It’s not dramatically,” snapped the Frenchman. “We did five races so far…

“I know that you want to have the big headlines tomorrow that ‘Fred said this…’ he continued, but this is f*****g bulls**t!

“At the end of the day, we are in competition,” he added. “You have ups and downs. When we have up, we are not world champions. When we have down, we are not nowhere. It’s just a competition.”

“I’m not sure that you draw the same conclusion with Max last week when he was seventh,” he continued, referring to the Dutchman’s performance in Bahrain.

“It is like it is. The competition is tight. You have ten cars and a couple of tenths.

“Have a look at Max,” he insisted. “He won in Japan. He finished thirty seconds behind Piastri in Bahrain, and in Saudi Arabia he was P2 and had pole position. We just have to stay calm.

“I will be 2000 per cent behind him,” vowed the Frenchman of Hamilton. “I will give him support and we will start from tomorrow morning to try to find solutions and reasons and to work on it early in the morning.

“But honestly, I am not too worried. If you have a look on what he did in China or what he did in the race in Bahrain last week or even on the first part of the session in this weekend, the potential is there for sure.

“We just have to adjust the balance because we are, collectively, Lewis and us, we are struggling with the balance of his car and how he is working the tyres.

“It’s a kind of negative spot,” he admitted, “but I think the potential of the car is there and we will try to solve that.”