Frederic Vasseur snapped at a reporter over a question about
Lewis Hamilton after another strong performance from Carlos Sainz . Sainz will leave
Ferrari at the end of the year after the Italians chose to replace him with the seven-time champion. And the Spaniard has responded by making his best start to an F1 season - a win and two more podiums from the three races he has taken part in. In contrast, Hamilton has struggled for form with another wretched Mercedes car. His best result so far is seventh, secured in the Bahrain season-opener, while the three races since have yielded just four more points. Two of those came on Sunday when he finished ninth in the Japanese
Grand Prix . Sainz was third behind only the runaway Red Bulls and, inevitably, boss Vasseur was once again quizzed about the decision to let the 29-year-old go. Carlos Sainz at odds with Mercedes chief Toto Wolff over Max Verstappen suspicion Ex-Man Utd and
Chelsea chief Peter Kenyon moves into F1 with new Williams role Clearly, though, it is a topic he is tired of speaking about. The Frenchman didn't even let the reporter finish his question before interrupting to leap to the defence of his future driver Hamilton and shut down another comparison to his outgoing star. "We have the same question each weekend," Vasseur glowered, before adding: "Do a copy paste of my reply of last week. Next one." It seemed Hamilton was in a similar mood to his future boss when it came to questions about Ferrari's current superiority over Mercedes. The 39-year-old also took his frustration out on a reporter as he stormed out of the print media pen after the Suzuka race . This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more Watch F1 live Watch
Formula One on Sky Sports £22 a month Catch all the action from Formula One on Sky Sports and get exclusive access to races, qualifying and much more for every Grand Prix. From Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton, you won't miss a lap on Sky Sports. Sky Watch it here He was first asked how his race had been, to which Hamilton bluntly replied: "It was okay." He took exception to the next question, from the same reporter, who asked: "Are you a little bit jealous of the Ferraris at the moment? Because they are faster?" Hamilton's retort was: "Do you have any better questions?" The reporter apologised but before anyone else could ask, the Mercedes racer walked away and his press officer simply said: "Thank you." He did speak in the TV pen, though, and made his thoughts on his newest Mercedes machine clear. He said: "The car is never what I hoped it would be. It's never what we hoped it would be... The hard tyre was pretty bad and the medium was much better. In hindsight, we should have kept two medium tyres, but in general the car was pretty bad today."