Vasseur termed the coverage “a joke” after selected clips of Lewis Hamilton’s radio conversations were used.
Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc ran nose-to-tail in the middle part of the lap with the seven-time champ ultimately moving aside.
As that plan was discussed between Hamilton and his engineer, Riccardo Adami, the broadcast played snippets from their conversation over the world feed.
It painted a dramatic picture of Ferrari issuing instructions to the seven-time world champion which were poorly received.
In reality, Hamilton had triggered the discussion as he informed Adami “I think I’m going to let Charles go because I’m struggling.”
However, that message was not broadcast and instead audiences only heard Adami say “We are swapping cars, Turn 14.”
Some back and forth then followed which implied Hamilton was displeased with the radio call.
“I think this is a joke from FOM because the first call came from Lewis,” Vasseur argued of the way the situation played for television viewers.
“Lewis asked us to swap, but to make the show, to create the mess around the situation, they broadcast only the second part of the question.
“I will discuss with them.”
Vasseur believes the selected audio misrepresents the situation within Ferrari, with Hamilton and Leclerc working well together in their first two races as teammates.
“I think we have to work for the team and to consider that we have to do the best for Ferrari, and it’s agreed between the cars and the drivers before the race, and it’s not an issue,” he said
“It’s even the best proof of this is that it came from the drivers that ‘okay, I’m losing the pace that I am keen to swap’.”
The Ferrari boss’ comments followed Hamilton himself speaking out over how he was portrayed during the Australian Grand Prix, his first race with Adami as his engineer.
In Melbourne, the broadcast carried terse comments from the new Ferrari driver to Adami.
“Everyone over-egged [the situation],” Hamilton explained.
“It was literally just a back-and-forth. I was very polite in how I suggested it.
“I said ‘leave it to me, please’. I wasn’t saying ‘F-you’, I wasn’t swearing.
“It was just at that point I was really struggling with the car and I needed full focus on a couple of things.
“We’re getting to know each other.
“He [Adami] had two champions or more in the past and there are no issues between us,” he added.
“Go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers – it’s far worse.
“The conversations that Max has had with his engineer over the years and the abuse that the poor guy has taken, and you never write about it, but you write about the smallest little discussion I have with mine.
“We’re literally just getting to know each other.
“Afterwards, I’m like, ‘Hey bro, I don’t need that bit of information but if you want to give me this, this is the place I like to do it’.
“’This is how I’m feeling in the car and at these points, this is what this is when I do and don’t need the information’.
“That’s what it’s about. There are no issues and it’s done with a smiley face, and we move forward.”
Ferrari isn’t alone with concerns that the broadcast being overly dramatic with others within the paddock having also taken not.
Following the Chinese Grand Prix, Oliver Bearman apologised for messages that were carried on the world feed.
Bearman made a series of passes during the race, chirping “Ciao” back to his pit wall on each occasion.
“I feel really bad now,” he claimed when asked about it post-race.
“I overtook someone and I said ‘Ciao’.
“We had two switchbacks in Turn 14. It was with one of the Red Bulls and an Alpine. I was happy with those overtakes.”
There is a growing concern that the use of the radio is being used to dramatise the action in much the way Drive to Survive does, rather than add another layer or add context to the race.
“There was absolutely no intention of presenting a misleading narrative regarding the Ferrari team radio,” an FOM spokesperson said of the Hamilton scenario in China.
“Due to other situations developing during the race the message from Lewis was not played but this was not intentional.”
The use of team radio as part of the television broadcast has been a hot topic in recent months following the FIA’s stricter stance on swearing.
While the priority is to clamp down on foul language in official press conferences, officials are also monitoring what makes the broadcast.
That has placed increased emphasis on Formula 1 Management (FOM), the championship’s commercial rights holder and producers of the world feed, to moderate and censor team radio appropriately.
Previously, that was not always happening which, under the International Sporting Code as it is now being applied, would leave drivers liable for penalties.
It’s also thought the use of team radio is something of a bargaining chip amid ongoing Governance Concorde Agreement discussions, with the FIA believed to own the rights to the transmissions which are licensed to FOM.
While the Commercial Concorde Agreement has been agreed between FOM and the teams, the governance element remains outstanding with sources suggesting to Speedcafe that it will not be resolved in the near future.
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