They Made a Terrible Mistake – Ferrari Is Shaken to the Core as Max Verstappen Steps In Over the Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Row with a Stark Warning
They Made a Terrible Mistake – Ferrari Is Shaken to the Core as Max Verstappen Steps In Over the Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Row with a Stark Warning
Max Verstappen believes Ferrari have made a mistake by putting Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the same team. Tempers flared between the two drivers at the recent Mexico City Grand Prix, where they battled for position on the opening lap. Pole-sitter Hamilton was left furious when Leclerc cut a corner during an attempted overtake before failing to give the position back. The incident effectively handed victory to Verstappen, who passed Hamilton himself and held on to take the chequered flag.
Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty, but Hamilton felt that punishment was unduly lenient and made his views clear over team radio.
He also lashed out at his team-mate after the race, calling out his mentality and demanding “serious talks” behind the scenes.
Verstappen has since weighed in on the dynamic between the Ferrari duo, suggesting that he wouldn’t have put them both in the same team if he was in charge.
He suggested that employing two lead drivers is rarely a recipe for collective success, hinting that Ferrari should prioritise one of them and axe the other.
Speaking to Viaplay, Verstappen said: “I’ve said it before, and a lot of people often don’t agree, but if I was a team principal, I’d never get two ‘No 1’ drivers because then you get things like this.
“One won’t yield for the other because they both think they can win, and that’s how I am too. And if I was a team principal, I’d change this.
“If you had a clear ‘No 1’ and ‘No 2’, they would’ve gone through the first corner as P1 and P2 and finished like that. Or P1 and P3, that’s fine too, because as a team you’re still scoring great points.
Hamilton later insisted that he had cleared the air with Leclerc ahead of last weekend’s race in Brazil, without the intervention of Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur.
“Me and Charles sat and spoke and we squashed it, and we’re moving on,” said Hamilton. “We still have a huge amount of respect for each other and I’m glad we had a chat and now we move on.
“We’ve been getting along just fine as normal. Sometimes in those scenarios it takes having a conversation and there’s been no demands from either side.
“It’s both just giving our points and areas we can do better and support each other. I’m hoping to have better races moving forwards.
