Hamilton drove for the Frenchman’s ASM F3 team in 2005, winning the European title. The following year he graduated to GP2 with Vasseur’s rebranded ART GP outfit, again winning the championship, before moving into F1 with McLaren.
Inevitably when Vasseur joined Ferrari at the start of 2023 there was speculation that he might attempt to leverage his good relationship with Hamilton in order to lure him away from Mercedes.
That’s what eventually transpired, with the pieces falling into place early this year and Hamilton opting out of the second year of his contract.
“I've got a great relationship with Fred,” said Hamilton when asked by Autosport if Vasseur was the only person who could have convinced him to join Ferrari.
“Obviously I raced with him in F2 and we had amazing success in F3, and also in GP2. That's really where the foundation of our relationship started. We always remained in touch.
“I thought that was going to be an amazing team manager at some stage and progress to F1, but at the time, he wasn't interested in that.
“It was really cool to see him step into the Alfa team. Then when he got the job at Ferrari, I was just so happy for him.
“I think just the stars aligned, I think it really wouldn't have happened without him. So I'm really grateful and really excited about the work that he's doing there.”
Source: Autosport