What changed
Ferrari has held talks with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the team-mates damaged their chances in a first-lap collision at last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur said the discussion clarified their positions and reaffirmed Ferrari’s rule: the team comes first. Leclerc trails Hamilton by 14 points in the drivers’ championship, while Mercedes needs three more points than Ferrari in São Paulo to secure the constructors’ title.
Why it matters
Ferrari did not merely lose a possible one-two finish in Mexico. It handed Max Verstappen the opening to win and turned its own driver pairing into the weekend’s central problem.
Vasseur’s message was blunt: Hamilton and Leclerc must respect each other, Ferrari, and the people working at the track and back home. That sounds simple. It is much harder when two elite drivers are fighting for position, points and status inside the same garage.
Hamilton has already made clear that he sees a pattern in how Leclerc races team-mates. He contrasted Leclerc’s approach to him in Mexico with the way Leclerc yielded to Verstappen into the first corner in Singapore. Hamilton also said he would not apologise for speaking openly.
That leaves Ferrari with a fragile reset rather than a settled solution. If the new guidelines hold, the team can keep its focus on performance. If they fail, another collision could cost Ferrari far more than a few points: it could deepen the rivalry between its drivers just as the next championship battle takes shape.
Comments
No comments yet.