Lewis Hamilton on Charles Leclerc's Racing Style: A New Challenge
Lewis Hamilton believes Charles Leclerc races him harder than anyone else on the Formula 1 grid – and he is no longer willing to just shrug it off as part of the game.
Their clash on the opening lap in Mexico City did more than ruin Ferrari’s best shot at a victory, and probably a one-two. It lit a fuse inside Hamilton that is still burning as the paddock rolls into Sao Paulo.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen picked up the pieces to win, but the real story from Mexico was painted red.
‘I see what you see’
Pundits have suggested for weeks that Leclerc’s wheel-to-wheel approach changes when the car alongside carries Hamilton’s number. The comparison has been obvious: how Leclerc fought Verstappen at Turn 1 in Singapore versus how he went at Hamilton in Mexico.
Hamilton was asked directly in Brazil if he felt he was being raced differently.
“Yes,” he replied. “I see what you see. Singapore, he was fully [alongside Verstappen], wheel to wheel, fully on the inside for the lead at Turn 1 Singapore, and I think it was definitely different.
“But, I mean, if you look at the team-mates, it was the same with Sebastian [Vettel], it was the same with Carlos [Sainz].”
It was a pointed answer from a driver who rarely wastes words. The message was clear: this is not a one-off, and not just about Mexico.
Friendly off track, flashpoints on it
Hamilton and Leclerc have presented a calm, almost warm front since becoming Ferrari team-mates. Smiles in the pen. Respect in the press conferences. Social media harmony.
On track, it has been anything but straightforward.
There was the first-lap clash at Monza in September, at Ferrari’s home race, when Hamilton was forced across the gravel at the first chicane as the pair went side by side. Leclerc later apologised, but the scar tissue remained.
“He’s been here a long time, is it eight years?” Hamilton said of Leclerc. “He is very much embedded within the team, and I knew that it would always be a challenge.
“I've always respected that when I've approached the team. I've really worked hard to build a good relationship with Charles and bridge the gap and make sure that we're harmonious and we work hard together.
“I've always tried to be respectful, and so naturally it's not so easy having someone like me come into a team because I'm very outspoken and I push and push and push, push for so many changes, and I'm going to be pushing for more.
“And as long as I'm here, that's how it's going to be. I'm here to win, and to be able to win, you have to work with everyone around you.”
Ferrari, in other words, must be one team on Sundays, not two warring factions in matching overalls.
A meeting delayed, frustration not
The calendar offers no time to breathe. Sao Paulo is the final stop of a punishing triple-header, yet Ferrari’s internal debrief after Mexico still has not really started.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur flew back to Maranello after Mexico. Leclerc went home to Monaco for the birth of his first child. That left Hamilton alone to face the media in Interlagos on Thursday, carrying the weight of the fallout.
“Naturally I was frustrated and I'm still frustrated,” he admitted. “So the conversations need to be had, so we will have those when the time permits.”
For now, there is no grand summit booked, no pre-written script.
“There isn't a plan at the moment because we haven't had a time to sit down, all face to face because Fred's been back in Maranello, and Charles has been back in Monaco, but we will have a sit down.
“I don't think everything's going to get squashed and sorted out in one meeting, but it is important what we build now will put us in the right position for next year.
“In some ways, I'm glad we've had that experience. Of course, I'd rather we had won and had a one-two but from that you can learn, and we can only really get stronger from that.”
That is the balance Hamilton is trying to strike: anger at a lost win, but also a sense that this might be the painful moment that forces Ferrari to grow up as a title operation.
Belief in a title fight – and pressure from within
Beneath the tension, there is something else: conviction. Hamilton genuinely believes Ferrari can fight for the championship in 2025.
“In the background, we've got these incredible people that are working so hard,” he said. “We've been on a bit of the back foot on power this year, but the actual car has been phenomenal all the year, great reliability, and every day I go out on track, I'm always thinking of getting the absolute maximum for them.
“I don't always achieve it, and from that you learn. But I think with the years and experience, you understand the bigger picture when you're getting to work with such a large group of people.
“I really do believe that next year we could win. We could be fighting for the world championship. That is the sole goal.”
His role, as he sees it, is to keep dragging the project forward.
“Right now, in the background, my focus is on continuing to hold on to the performance we've picked up in the last few races in terms of execution, and then working on next year's car. I obviously can't do anything about the engine except for to just push them, and they'll continue to push in the background. I believe they are.
“With the car, it's steering it, making sure we're steering it in the right direction, and making sure we arrive next year on the right foot.
“Then Fred's job is to make sure that we are all running in the same direction. Of course, we're going to race hard but fair, and making sure that we get the maximum and the best result for the team.”
The message to Vasseur and Leclerc is coming: align now, or waste another season.
‘I’m not going to be silenced’
Hamilton knows his arrival at Ferrari has shaken the walls. He is loud on the radio, blunt in the briefings, relentless in what he demands. He has no intention of softening that edge.
He dismissed any notion that his radio messages in Mexico – where he questioned Leclerc’s move and the team’s handling of it – were part of some calculated public campaign.
“I don't really care how everyone feels about what I said,” he insisted. “I wear my heart on my sleeve when I say how I feel in the moment.
“I think one thing that I would like to... I did see something that someone was saying, that it's calculated, the things that I'm saying. And I just want to combat that with the fact that when you're in the race, your heart rate is like 170, you're driving at 200 miles an hour, you don't have time to be calculating what you're saying and thinking what you're saying and what the media are going to write about.
“You don't think about that.
“Usually, your frustration comes out towards the people in the team, particularly the bosses about decisions.
“And also, the stewards have always asked us to voice if there's an issue on track. For example, if you get held up, you get blocked, they ask you to voice it.”
He even pointed to a specific incident in Mexico practice with Isack Hadjar.
“An example is if you look in Mexico, one of the practice sessions, Hadjar backed off on the racing lines into Turn 1, I didn't say anything about it.
“If I had spoken and said, you know, like, throw my hands up, for example, they would have investigated and he would have had a penalty, because it was impeding.
“And so it is important to make sure you're open. Of course, there's sometimes you say things and maybe you might regret it afterwards. I don't. I've never apologised for being authentic and real.
“And I'm not going to be silenced. I've not been asked to not say anything, and that's just the way it is.”
The conversation to come
When Hamilton finally sits down with Vasseur and Leclerc, he knows exactly how he wants to approach it.
“I think it's about communication. It's about understanding,” he said. “I haven't really tried to think what the meeting will be like, how it's going to go. You never ever know.
“But what I will do is I'll make sure I'm always just authentically me, and I won't back down from taking responsibility for any part that I play and any decisions that I make for the team, and just continue to push.”
The push is the constant in all of this. Push for performance. Push for unity. Push for clarity in wheel-to-wheel combat.
Ferrari has a car it trusts, a driver pairing with elite speed, and a seven-time world champion who believes a title is within reach.
What happens in that meeting – and how they race each other from Sao Paulo onwards – will show whether this is a team ready to fight for a world championship, or one still learning how not to throw wins away on lap one.
