Lewis Hamilton has called for internal discussions at Ferrari, stating that the team must hold “some serious talks behind closed doors” following an opening-lap dispute with teammate Charles Leclerc that cost them victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Starting from his first pole position since joining Ferrari, Hamilton lost out early in the race. Leclerc cut through a chicane on the opening lap to seize the lead, an action that forced Hamilton wide and allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to slip past into second place. Verstappen eventually capitalized on the situation to claim victory, leaving Hamilton to finish second.
Behind the lead battle, Kimi Antonelli secured a third-place finish, making history by becoming the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. Meanwhile, a mid-race red flag—triggered by a crash involving Valtteri Bottas in the Cadillac—prompted a frustrated reaction over the team radio from Hamilton, who told his pit wall that the team had “big, big problems.”
Addressing the missed opportunity, Hamilton expressed that Ferrari had the speed to secure a dominant result. “Ultimately, that lost us the win today,” Hamilton said. “We could have easily had a one-two today. We had the pace to do so. We’re going into Turn Four first and second. If we just held position, I think anything can happen in the race. But when your team-mate works against you and then you lose positions like that, it’s definitely tough.” They would have been running one-two and could have controlled the race from there and likely finished in those positions, hamilton’s point is that if the Ferraris had worked together on the first lap.
Hamilton noted that the lack of internal guidelines contributed to the track conflict, adding that he expects the matter to be reviewed privately. “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 would change anything from Charles’ side, I don’t know. We’ve just got to figure out. But something needs to change for sure,” he emphasized.
Leclerc defended his driving strategy when informed of Hamilton’s frustration, noting that both drivers failed to make the corner. “I will speak with Lewis. We both didn’t make the corner. I don’t know if Lewis’ point was for me to get P3 but having the Red Bull second I felt it was worth it to keep the position and see what happened. That’s what I did,” Leclerc explained. He added that tough wheel-to-wheel racing is expected when fighting for wins, pointing out that he could also have taken issue with how far Hamilton pushed him off track at Turn One.
