Lewis Hamilton accuses Charles Leclerc of ‘working against him’ in Ferrari fallout

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is ‘really pi**ed’ with Charles Leclerc after accusing his Ferrari teammate of working against him during their opening-lap battle in Mexico City.

The two Ferraris fought hard against each other on the opening lap at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, allowing Max Verstappen to get ahead of Hamilton and opening the door for the Red Bull driver to beat Leclerc on strategy.

Lewis Hamilton accuses Charles Leclerc of working against him

After taking pole position at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Hamilton slipped to third on the opening lap after his Ferrari teammate attacked him.

Leclerc got alongside Hamilton through Turns 1 and 2 but was behind as the duo approached Turn 4.

The Monegasque attempted a move around the outside, braking late and hanging it out beside Hamilton, who also braked late and ran wide through the corner.

With Leclerc still on the outside, he was forced to scamper across the grass, with both Ferrari drivers having run wide and off the track.

Leclerc emerged in front and continued up the road, while Verstappen emerged ahead of Hamilton and was able to hold off the seven-time F1 World Champion.

Hamilton was clearly incensed by the situation, taking to team radio to complain about Leclerc’s “pushing me off the circuit”.

He also voiced the opinion that the stewards’ decision to award Leclerc a five-second time penalty was effectively giving his teammate the win.

In the end, a mid-race red flag reset proceedings. While Verstappen held the lead again after the restart, Hamilton was able to slice past Leclerc and finish ahead of the Monegasque.

With Verstappen stating afterwards that he felt Ferrari had helped him win through the drivers’ squabbling, Hamilton gave his version of events when speaking to the media in the post-race press conference.

The pair had previously come to blows at Ferrari’s home event at Monza, after which Hamilton called for team boss Fred Vasseur to introduce ‘rules of engagement’.

Asked whether he was disappointed that a similar scenario had happened again, and what he felt needed to change, Hamilton admitted he was still unsure how to approach the situation.

“I don’t know what needs to happen now. How we discuss things when we go back – I’m not quite sure how I want to engage in that force of frustrations of today,” he said.

“I’m happy because this guy [Antonelli] just won the championship, so I’m really torn because, on one side, I’m happy and, on the other side, I’m really pi**ed.

“We lost valuable points. We, as a team, worked so hard. We could have easily had a one-two today. We had the pace to do.

“So we’re going into Turn 4, first and second. If we just held position, I think anything can happen in the race, but when your teammate works against you, and then you lose positions like that, it’s definitely tough.

“So we’ll just talk about it offline, and it’s not really worth saying too much more. We don’t have rules of engagement, and whether or not that will change anything from Charles’ side, I don’t know.

“We’ve just got to figure it out, but something needs to change, for sure.”

Lewis Hamilton questions whether Ferrari rules of engagement would change anything

Hamilton is no stranger to hard-fought battles with teammates, having gone head-to-head with George Russell in recent years and endured a bitter rivalry with Nico Rosberg a decade ago.

Asked whether racing Leclerc was any different from those previous experiences, particularly given the younger driver’s determination not to lose out in the Ferrari teammate battle, Hamilton suggested there was little difference.

“Not much different, I would say, from any of the others that I’ve been alongside,” he said.

“I think the core thing to remember, which maybe comes with age, is that every decision you make in the car impacts all the people that work in the background, the whole team.

“So working as a team is a part of our job and a part of our contract: we have to work as a team, which we could have easily done today.

“So it’s a shame to see us lose as we did, and that will just continue unless action is taken and a real, deep, serious conversation is had, so it shouldn’t happen moving forward.

“Of course, I’ve had close battles with teammates in the past, and we can’t always get it right. But nine times out of 10, we should be able to.

“So I think we’ll take it offline, and we’ll have some good convos. Hopefully, for sure, it won’t be easy, but it must be done.”

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Hamilton’s previous calls for intervention came after the pair’s clash at Monza, but the post-race conversations appear to have done little to change the dynamic between the Ferrari drivers.

Asked whether he felt he was struggling to get the team to listen to his concerns, and how Ferrari’s handling of the situation compared with his Mercedes experience, Hamilton insisted there had been difficult moments at both teams.

“I had way worse times at Mercedes. There were some really bad moments, but no, I don’t really see there being huge differences,” he said.

“I think it was managed well at Mercedes, and I think Fred’s doing his best.

“Fred came and spoke to me before the race, and I think he was nervous, and I think he just wanted us… he wants his two drivers to do well.

“And, from my side, if I’m coming from behind and I’m taking all the risk, and it ends up we lose as a team, then I think I would have some answering to do, because it impacts a lot of people.

“But it was just unnecessary. I think we could have had that one-two today, which would have been huge for the team and for everyone at the factory who worked to bring us these upgrades.

“So I don’t really know what will be done because up until now nothing really has been done. So yeah, we’ll see.”

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