Lewis Hamilton’s new team boss at Ferrari, Fred Vasseur is no stranger to the seven-time world champion. 

Indeed, when Hamilton was just another young hopeful with dreams of making it F1, Vasseur guided the McLaren protege to two of the highest profile junior single-seater championships. 

It was these championships that convinced then-McLaren boss to put Hamilton in the F1 car alongside Fernando Alonso for 2007 after Kimi Raikkonen had left for Ferrari and Juan Pablo Montoya had quit mid-2006, leading to half-a-season of a stand-in driver.

The rest is history. 

Vasseur and Hamilton are hoping to replicate at the Scuderia to end the long drought stretching back to Raikkonen’s 2007 crown and allow Hamilton to break the joint-record he holds with Michael Schumacher.

Vasseur and Hamilton’s previous spells

Prior to joining Ferrari, Vasseur had spells with Alfa Romeo and Sauber after taking his first steps into F1 management with Renault in 2016.

The Frenchman’s career up until that point had largely been spent running the junior powerhouse ART Grand Prix squad that dominated the junior formulas. 

Formed after a merger between Vasseur’s ASM Formule 3 and Nicholas Todt – son of then-Ferrari boss Jean – ART has won 25 drivers’ championships across a variety of championships.

Hamilton first joined up with Vasseur for the 2005 Formula 3 Euro Series, with the field including the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Lucas di Grassi, and Paul di Resta.

Hamilton dominated the season, taking 15 wins from the 20 races, including beating Vettel into second place three times.

The next step up the ladder for Hamilton was then GP2, which was into its second season in 2006, with Vasseur’s ART running Nico Rosberg to the inaugural crown in 2005.

Stepping up to GP2, Hamilton did the ‘one and done’, clinching the title in his only season in the category – something the likes of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri would do over a decade later.

Whilst Hamilton went within a whisker of winning the 2007 F1 title and then did so in ’08, Vasseur remained committed to the junior categories. 

It was not until Renault re-entered as a works team in 2016 that he finally stepped up to F1 as a team boss, but that relationship was short-lived, with the Frenchman joining Sauber in 2017, staying until replacing Mattia Binotto after the 2022 season. 

Since then, Vasseur has sharpened Ferrari’s operations, eradicating some of the mistakes that had plagued the team, as it came within 14 points of winning the 2024 constructors’ before Hamilton’s arrival for ’25.

Check out the full list of drivers Vasseur has guided to junior title success below!