Hamilton and Leclerc Move On After Monza Clash
Lewis Hamilton insists the dust has settled. The clash with Charles Leclerc at Monza, the radio sniping at Zandvoort, the noise around Ferrari’s combustible new partnership – all, he says, are now parked.
The seven-time champion revealed the pair met privately after the Italian Grand Prix, where Leclerc shoved Hamilton into the gravel at the first chicane before crashing out two laps later. Hamilton recovered to sixth but left Monza visibly frustrated.
This week in Madrid, his tone had changed.
“We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it,” Hamilton said. “We were just both open and honest, and we squashed it. We can move on. I think that one shows the maturity from him.”
It was already the second flashpoint in as many weekends between Ferrari’s two heavyweights. At the Dutch Grand Prix, Leclerc had resisted a team request to move aside, triggering an on-air argument that exposed the tension inside the garage.
Hamilton, though, is keen to frame it as the natural friction of a front-running team with two alpha drivers.
“It’s healthy,” he said. “It’s a relationship we have built over time. Of course, there’s going to be frustrations and I’m sure there’ll be more times where we’re close because we’re very close in pace.
“We both want to win just as much as each other, and we both want to do well for the team as well.”
Leclerc, speaking separately, did not try to defend his Monza move.
“It’s kind of clear that we never want to see a car of the same team in the grass,” he admitted. “After reviewing, we spoke with Lewis. I obviously know I went too far in turn two and I said it to Lewis and I think it’s very clear what we should do or should avoid going forward.”
He refused to reveal the full content of their debrief, but stressed the relationship had not been damaged.
“The only thing I can say is that it definitely did not affect the good relationship that we have and it will not affect anything going forward. And that is the most important for me, really.”
What stings Leclerc most is that it all happened at Ferrari’s temple of speed.
“I know we are driving for Ferrari and if there’s one race where you don’t want that to happen, it’s in Monza and when these things happen at our home race, then it does a huge mess outside.
“However, looking at the race from outside, there’s been also some friction between other team-mates and the only thing we end up speaking of is Lewis and me, which I don’t think is quite right. But that doesn’t mean we did everything perfect.”
Hamilton, now one of the team’s elder statesmen, has repeatedly pointed to a broader issue than just wheel-to-wheel etiquette. Ferrari have stumbled in qualifying at three consecutive events, compromising both drivers’ Sundays.
“It’s really just making sure we’re executing to make sure we get the best result for the team,” he said. “Instead of us working against each other and finish fourth and fifth, maybe we can work together and get a podium and pull off more points.
“It’s a longer term process. It’s not something we can just change into this weekend. There’s a huge amount of moving parts, there’s a lot of people, there’s a culture that’s been there for a long, long time and moving big pieces is not so easy.”
For Ferrari, harmony is not a luxury. It is a prerequisite if they want to turn raw pace into sustained results.
A new kind of Spanish test
All of that plays out against a very different backdrop this weekend. Formula 1 arrives at the new Madring, a hybrid street circuit laid out around the Ifema complex near Madrid’s international airport. It replaces the long-serving Barcelona layout with a track that has already drawn wary respect from the drivers.
Hamilton, who has seen more new venues than most, did not play down the scale of the challenge.
“It’s a massively challenging circuit,” he said. “Of all the new tracks that I’ve gone to, this one, maybe Saudi, are the two closest in terms of how difficult it was to get on top of the car and find the right lines and such.”
George Russell went even further. The Mercedes driver called Madring “a crazy circuit” and placed it among the most perilous on the calendar.
“Arguably one of the most risky circuits of the whole calendar,” he said. “Because you have real high-speed corners, sort of Jeddah-esque, the walls are very close, so there’s no margin for error, but then you have other corners… where you’re coming from a high speed into a slow braking zone, you’re braking and turning at the same time, so locking tyres are going to be easy and if you lock up you’ll be straight in the wall.
“So, excited to try that out, I think it’s going to be really challenging for us as drivers, the race is going to be challenging to overtake, so on the whole it’s not an easy one.”
The margins will be thin, the punishment immediate. On a track like that, trust between team-mates and precision from the pit wall become even more critical.
Russell chasing Antonelli’s shadow
Russell arrives in Spain under a different kind of pressure. He trails Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 66 points after the Italian’s landmark Monza win from 19th on the grid – the sort of comeback that defines a season and, sometimes, a career.
With nine or 10 races left and uncertainty hanging over the final schedule, Russell knows the numbers are starting to turn against him.
“I would definitely need some luck and I need some good performances,” he admitted. “It’s not really something I’m thinking about, because he’s performing better than me, so he deserves to be leading the championship.
“There’s still a long way to go, but he’s yet to have a bad weekend in terms of performance.
“So he’s performing exceptionally well, my performances are better, but if I want to win this championship, I’m going to need some luck on the way. But it’s not something I’m focused on. I’m focused on driving faster and just finding more performance.”
Antonelli, fresh from calling his Monza triumph “so far the best day of my life and definitely one I will remember forever”, is trying hard not to get drawn into title arithmetic.
“I don’t really want to try thinking about the championship,” he said. “I think Monza was the proof that I wasn’t driving thinking about, or worrying about the championship. I was just driving to win, to do my best. So that’s the mindset.”
The 18-year-old Italian spent the Monday after Monza back where it all began – karting with Mercedes – as a deliberate reset.
“After Monza, that night, that day overall, I was very excited. But then going karting on Monday helped me to go back to earth, just go back to the ground.
“It was a good day, good fun day with the team. It was also a way to remind myself where I came from, all the journey that was done.
“And then about pressure, I try to embrace it as much as possible. And I try to see it as a positive thing and try to see it as an opportunity too. That’s also what is helping me to stay calm under difficult situations.”
So Ferrari arrive in Madrid having called a truce. Mercedes arrive with a title fight tilting decisively toward its rising star. And all of them face a street circuit waiting to punish the slightest lapse.
On a track with no room for error, whose nerve holds first – the veterans trying to steady the ship, or the young champion-in-waiting driving as if he has nothing to lose?
