Guenther Steiner's Take on Ferrari's Hamilton–Leclerc Dilemma
Guenther Steiner has never been shy of an opinion, and he’s lost none of his edge watching from the outside. His verdict on Ferrari’s looming Hamilton–Leclerc dilemma is blunt: if Maranello is serious about the 2026 world championship, it has to pick a side – and that side, he says, must be Lewis Hamilton.
The former Haas team principal believes Ferrari cannot afford to drift into a title fight without a clear hierarchy. The flashpoint, in his eyes, has already arrived.
Zandvoort flashpoint exposes Ferrari fault line
The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort laid bare the tension. On fresher tyres and clearly the quicker car in the closing stages, Hamilton found himself bottled up behind Charles Leclerc. Lap after lap, the seven-time world champion stared at the back of the other Ferrari, his race – and potentially his title tilt – being bled away in real time.
Hamilton’s frustration crackled over team radio. Ferrari hesitated. Leclerc stayed ahead. The delay cost Hamilton dearly and lit up the debate over whether the team truly understands what it will take to fight for a championship again.
For Steiner, the problem didn’t start when Hamilton got stuck in Leclerc’s dirty air. It started long before the lights went out.
“You cannot implement team orders during a race,” he said on The Red Flags Podcast. “You need to agree them beforehand.”
In other words, Zandvoort wasn’t just a strategy misstep. It was a failure of leadership.
“Put your money on the guy with the better chance”
Steiner’s logic is cold, almost ruthless, but very familiar in Formula 1. When the margins at the front are tiny, sentiment becomes a luxury.
“The realistic thing is, can Charles really win the world championship? Maybe not. And who is in front? Lewis,” he said.
He admitted he hasn’t crunched every scenario, but the principle is clear: if one of the two Ferrari drivers looks more likely to deliver a title, the team has a duty to throw its weight behind that driver.
“If you want to win, it's very tight up front there. You need to put your money on the guy who has got the better chance,” Steiner argued. “That's the guy in front, who has got more points, and that is the only selling point to Charles. ‘Hey buddy, your team-mate has done better up to now. Now he's number one.’”
It’s the classic championship calculation. One car becomes the spearhead. The other becomes the shield.
Vasseur in the spotlight
Steiner is clear about where the responsibility sits. Not with Ferrari chairman John Elkann, not with the boardroom, but with the man on the pit wall.
“Fred, that is his job,” he said of team principal Fred Vasseur. “I don't think John Elkann should or would get involved in it because if he gets involved in that one at that stage, he needs to run the team.”
Vasseur, in Steiner’s view, must own the decision and the fallout. Setting expectations, defining roles, and having the hard conversation with Leclerc are all part of the job description.
“But I think Fred is very much in control of it because Fred needs to win a world championship,” Steiner added.
That is the crux. Ferrari has the driver pairing, the resources, and the platform to be in the 2026 fight. What it cannot afford, Steiner warns, is to reach that battle with two drivers tripping over each other and no clear plan.
The question now is not whether Ferrari has to choose a number one. It’s when Vasseur will say it out loud – and whether Hamilton and Leclerc will accept the script when the stakes hit their peak.
