The mindblowing hypocrisy of Lewis Hamilton
'He is playing a dangerous game by picking so many fights'
Lewis Hamilton was not happy with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc’s move at the start of last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
But Hamilton has not been happy about a lot of things lately, has he? With history suggesting that it does not tend to end well for drivers who openly criticise Ferrari in public, Lewis is playing a dangerous game…
Lewis Hamilton is playing a dangerous game with his public criticism of Ferrari
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2026 Italian Grand Prix
The most amusing thing about Lewis Hamilton’s complaints about Charles Leclerc on the opening lap at Monza?
The complete and utter hypocrisy of it all.
Lewis has pretty much built a career on the sort of move Charles made on him at the first chicane.
So often in the Mercedes days Nico Rosberg would try his luck hanging around the outside of Hamilton at the start of a race, giving his teammate an open invitation to ease him off the circuit.
And every single time – Japan/Austin 2015 and Canada 2016 immediately spring to mind – Lewis would graciously accept.
There was a genius to it – no different, really, to how a team might push the technical regulations to the absolute limit.
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Hamilton would do just enough to compromise Rosberg, costing him a bundle of positions, but crucially without ever falling foul of the rules.
Indeed, never have the racing rules been played so cleverly (slyly?) by a driver.
Nico would always whine about being forced off track, of course, but ultimately the fault lay with him for repeatedly and naively leaving himself exposed to the machinations of the sister Mercedes.
So to hear Hamilton, now in the Rosberg role, take issue with Leclerc’s robust approach to the start at Monza was especially shameless.
Like Nico back in the day, Lewis – breathtakingly aggressive against Charles into Turn 1, as if trying to plant his flag and impose a kind of inter-team superiority at Ferrari’s home race – should have seen what was coming and adjusted accordingly before it got to that stage.
Yet his reaction to the incident was merely in keeping with Hamilton’s general demeanour since around the time of the summer break.
He has been particularly irascible over recent races, reverting to his 2025 mode of seeing only the bad at Ferrari now the afterglow of his Barcelona victory has worn off.
In almost everything he has found fault: his teammate’s racecraft, the pit wall’s execution and communication, team orders both in-race and in the context of the championship (“it’s far too late,” he replied when asked whether Ferrari should favour him from here).
And in most cases, he has a point: Ferrari continues to fall frustratingly short in a number of areas.
Yet by expressing his complaints so forcefully and so publicly – constantly pointing out how poorly Ferrari operates compared to Mercedes will only irritate everyone at Maranello – he risks falling into the classic Fernando Alonso trap of alienating the team around him.
Too often lately the overriding tone of Hamilton’s comments has been: ‘Seriously, what am I meant to do with this lot?’
Historically, Ferrari drivers tend not to fare too well when a split develops down the middle and the dynamic between team and driver stops being ‘we’ and instead becomes ‘you and me’.
Call it a culture clash if you must, but the sort of remarks Hamilton has made over recent weeks do not go down at all well in these parts.
This is precisely why Hamilton’s famous ‘documents’ – a running joke in the second half of 2025 – were met with resistance in some quarters last year.
Why should we listen to him? An outsider? What has he done for us lately?
For all the good he believes he is doing by highlighting these areas of weakness, there will always be those who interpret his list of suggestions as a basic lack of trust in Ferrari. Especially so when he airs them via the media.
He is playing a dangerous game by picking so many fights.
And that afternoon in Barcelona? It is starting to feel a long time ago now.
This will not end well.
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