Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Resolve Tensions After Monza Clash
Lewis Hamilton insists any tension with Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc has been dealt with head-on after their fraught Italian Grand Prix clash at Monza.
The seven-time champion was pushed into the gravel at the first chicane by Leclerc on Sunday, then watched his team-mate crash out two laps later. Hamilton salvaged sixth but left Ferrari’s home race visibly frustrated. It followed a radio row at Zandvoort, where Leclerc resisted an instruction to let Hamilton through.
This time, they took it behind closed doors.
“We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it,” Hamilton said ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. “We were just both open and honest, and we squashed it. We can move on. I think that one shows the maturity from him.”
No engineers. No management. Just two drivers who know they are racing on the edge for the same prize.
“It’s healthy,” Hamilton added. “It’s a relationship we have built over time. Of course, there’s going to be frustrations and I’m sure there’ll be more times where we’re close because we’re very close in pace. We both want to win just as much as each other, and we both want to do well for the team as well.”
Leclerc did not try to defend the Monza move.
“It’s kind of clear that we never want to see a car of the same team in the grass,” he admitted. “After reviewing, we spoke with Lewis. I obviously know I went too far in turn two and I said it to Lewis and I think it’s very clear what we should do or should avoid going forward.”
The Monegasque was keen to shut down any narrative of a fractured partnership.
“I won’t go into much more details of what we’ve said. The only thing I can say is that it definitely did not affect the good relationship that we have and it will not affect anything going forward. And that is the most important for me, really.”
Monza, though, stings.
“I know we are driving for Ferrari and if there’s one race where you don’t want that to happen, it’s in Monza and when these things happen at our home race, then it does a huge mess outside,” Leclerc said.
He also bristled at the spotlight trained solely on the red cars.
“Looking at the race from outside, there’s been also some friction between other team-mates and the only thing we end up speaking of is Lewis and me, which I don’t think is quite right. But that doesn’t mean we did everything perfect.”
Hamilton, for his part, zoomed out to the bigger picture: Ferrari’s own execution.
The last three race weekends have left the Scuderia on the back foot after scrappy qualifying sessions. For a team chasing Red Bull and Mercedes, that margin for error does not exist.
“It’s really just making sure we’re executing to make sure we get the best result for the team,” Hamilton said. “Instead of us working against each other and finish fourth and fifth, maybe we can work together and get a podium and pull off more points.
“It’s a longer term process. It’s not something we can just change into this weekend. There’s a huge amount of moving parts, there’s a lot of people, there’s a culture that’s been there for a long, long time and moving big pieces is not so easy.”
Now comes a different kind of test.
New frontier in Spain: the Madring
Formula 1 heads into the unknown this weekend at the first Spanish Grand Prix on the Madring, a new hybrid street circuit built around the Ifema complex near Madrid’s international airport.
Hamilton sounded almost wary.
“It’s a massively challenging circuit,” he said. “Of all the new tracks that I’ve gone to, this one, maybe Saudi, are the two closest in terms of how difficult it was to get on top of the car and find the right lines and such.”
George Russell went even stronger.
“It’s a crazy circuit, I would put it,” the Mercedes driver said. “Arguably one of the most risky circuits of the whole calendar.
“Because you have real high-speed corners, sort of Jeddah-esque, the walls are very close, so there’s no margin for error, but then you have other corners… where you’re coming from a high speed into a slow braking zone, you’re braking and turning at the same time, so locking tyres are going to be easy and if you lock up you’ll be straight in the wall.
“So, excited to try that out, I think it’s going to be really challenging for us as drivers, the race is going to be challenging to overtake, so on the whole it’s not an easy one.”
The track promises risk, reward and very little room to breathe. Perfect territory for those in form. Brutal for anyone already on the back foot.
Russell chasing Antonelli as title gap widens
Russell arrives in Spain staring at a 66-point deficit to team-mate Kimi Antonelli after the Italian’s remarkable Monza victory from 19th on the grid. It felt like a watershed moment for the young Mercedes driver; for Russell, it sharpened the maths.
With nine or 10 races left and uncertainty around how the season will conclude, his title hopes are slipping.
“I would definitely need some luck and I need some good performances,” Russell said. “It’s not really something I’m thinking about, because he’s performing better than me, so he deserves to be leading the championship.
“There’s still a long way to go, but he’s yet to have a bad weekend in terms of performance.
“So he’s performing exceptionally well, my performances are better, but if I want to win this championship, I’m going to need some luck on the way. But it’s not something I’m focused on. I’m focused on driving faster and just finding more performance.”
Antonelli, fresh from what he calls the best day of his life, is refusing to get drawn into title talk.
“I don’t really want to try thinking about the championship,” he said. “I think Monza was the proof that I wasn’t driving thinking about, or worrying about the championship. I was just driving to win, to do my best. So that’s the mindset.”
His Monza win, he said, is “so far the best day of my life and definitely one I will remember forever.”
The comedown arrived quickly, and deliberately. A day of karting with Mercedes on Monday acted as a reset.
“After Monza, that night, that day overall, I was very excited. But then going karting on Monday helped me to go back to earth, just go back to the ground.
“It was a good day, good fun day with the team. It was also a way to remind myself where I came from, all the journey that was done.
“And then about pressure, I try to embrace it as much as possible. And I try to see it as a positive thing and try to see it as an opportunity too. That’s also what is helping me to stay calm under difficult situations.”
So the grid rolls into Madrid with Ferrari trying to turn fragile harmony into hard results, Mercedes weighing risk against reward on a circuit with walls waiting for the slightest mistake, and a rising Italian talent refusing to look at the standings.
On a track this unforgiving, who blinks first?
