Leclerc and Hamilton Address Monza Clash Ahead of Spanish Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc did not bother with excuses.

“I didn’t behave the way I should have,” he admitted, speaking about the opening-lap fight with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari’s home race in Monza – a clash that lit up Italy and briefly set Maranello on edge.

On the run through the first chicane, Leclerc squeezed Hamilton so hard at the exit that the seven-time world champion was forced wide, lost six places and never fully recovered, salvaging only sixth at the Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton walked away from Ferrari’s temple of pressure muttering about “no rules” inside the team.

At Ferrari, those words echo.

Ferrari fire, handled behind closed doors

The fallout did not stay in the paddock. Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, the two star drivers sat down with Ferrari chairman John Elkann, chief executive Benedetto Vigna and team principal Frederic Vasseur.

Leclerc knows the weight of that red shirt and the noise that comes with it.

“What was very important was to speak first of all,” he said. “It’s been quite a few years now that I’ve been in Ferrari and I know how it feels when everything on Ferrari is kind of on fire and if you don’t speak between Lewis and I, you can get caught with this noise around the team.

“It’s not that there’s no reason for that noise but the intensity of the noise is a bit too crazy. When you look at Monza, there has been friction between other team-mates and we barely talk about it but when it’s about Ferrari, it takes proportion that is not normal.”

So Leclerc went straight to the point with Hamilton.

“We spoke with Lewis. We’ve always had a great relationship. I have a lot of respect for Lewis. I told him, in Turn 2, I didn’t behave the way I should have and the way a team-mate should.

“It happens when you are super motivated, Lewis is super motivated and I’m super motivated and we all try to do our best. Sometimes you go too far, which I did, and we will retune that in order for it to not happen again in the future.”

The pressure told on track as well. Less than two laps after that first-lap skirmish, Leclerc lost the car at the final corner and slammed into the barriers in a huge crash. He climbed out but complained of blurred vision and dizziness in the immediate aftermath.

The scare did not linger.

“I will be 100-per-cent fine,” he said. “It was only right after the crash that was just a little bit strange and felt a little bit dizzy, but very quickly from Monday afternoon I felt better.

“I had quite a few treatments for the neck because that’s where most of the shock went and I’m feeling good now, so I’m ready for this weekend.”

Hamilton: “We squashed it”

For Hamilton, this was familiar territory. He has lived through intense intra-team battles with Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and George Russell. The Monza flashpoint with Leclerc, their biggest moment of friction since becoming team-mates last year, slotted straight into that catalogue.

This time, though, he wanted no lingering resentment.

“I think what’s great is that there was no shying away from having a discussion,” Hamilton said. “We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it and we were just both open and honest and we squashed it and we can move on.

“I think that shows the maturity from him and I think it’s healthy. 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.”

At Mercedes, Hamilton often pushed for clear “rules of engagement” with his team-mates. He has already asked Ferrari for similar guidelines when duelling with Leclerc, but those specifics did not make it onto the Monza debrief agenda.

“Right now, I’m just trying to focus on having a better weekend this weekend,” he said. “I’m sure at some stage we’ll discuss how we can be better, but we’ve not had a lot of time to just turn around. You can’t change things in two days.”

So Ferrari arrive in Madrid with their star pairing publicly united, privately warned and acutely aware of the thin line they are treading. Two drivers, one car good enough to fight, and a fanbase that expects both to charge.

The next time they barrel into Turn 1 together, the real test of that “squashed” Monza incident will begin.