Lewis Hamilton on Charles Leclerc's Aggressive Racing Style
Lewis Hamilton believes Charles Leclerc races him harder than anyone else on the Formula 1 grid – and he is no longer pretending otherwise.
The Ferrari pair’s collision on the opening lap in Mexico City ripped up what looked like a golden chance of victory, perhaps even a one-two, and handed Max Verstappen yet another win for Red Bull. For Hamilton, it was more than just a lost Sunday. It was a pattern.
Asked in Sao Paulo if he agreed with the growing view that Leclerc is particularly aggressive when the car alongside is his, Hamilton didn’t hesitate.
“Yes,” he said. “I see what you see.”
He pointed straight back to Singapore, where Leclerc dived down the inside of Verstappen into Turn 1, fully alongside and fighting cleanly for the lead. Mexico, in Hamilton’s eyes, felt different. Too different.
And this, he stressed, is not new. “If you look at the team-mates, it was the same with Sebastian [Vettel], it was the same with Carlos [Sainz],” he added, suggesting that Leclerc’s fiercest wheel-to-wheel battles often come inside his own garage.
A relationship under strain
Off track, Hamilton and Leclerc have largely presented a calm, almost easy-going partnership in their first two seasons together at Ferrari. On Sundays, it has been anything but straightforward.
Mexico followed flashpoints at Monza, where Hamilton was forced into the gravel at the first chicane as they ran side by side in front of Ferrari’s home crowd. Leclerc apologised afterwards, but the memory lingers.
“He’s been here a long time, is it eight years?” Hamilton said, acknowledging Leclerc’s deep roots at Maranello. “He is very much embedded within the team, and I knew that it would always be a challenge.”
Hamilton arrived at Ferrari promising to bring his experience and relentless standards to a team that has not won a title since 2008. He has thrown himself into that role.
“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,” he said. “I’ve always tried to be respectful.”
Then came the other side of it.
“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.”
Frustration, and a crucial meeting still to come
Ferrari’s season has rolled straight from Mexico to Sao Paulo, but the key conversations have been delayed. Team principal Frederic Vasseur flew back to Italy after the race. Leclerc returned to Monaco for the birth of his first child. Hamilton came alone to face the media at Interlagos.
“Naturally I was frustrated and I’m still frustrated,” he admitted. The talks he demanded in the heat of Mexico’s aftermath – “serious talks” – have yet to happen.
“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.”
That, for Hamilton, is the real battleground. Not just how they race each other into Turn 1 this Sunday, but what kind of Ferrari emerges in 2025.
“In some ways, I’m glad we’ve had that experience,” he said of the Mexico clash. “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.”
Behind the scenes, he insists, Ferrari are closer than the results suggest.
“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,” he said. “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.”
With age and titles has come perspective.
“With the years and experience, you understand the bigger picture when you’re getting to work with such a large group of people,” he said. “I really do believe that next year we could win. We could be fighting for the world championship. That is the sole goal.”
Steering Ferrari’s future
Hamilton’s focus now splits in two: execute clean weekends to the end of this year, and drag next year’s car in the direction he believes will finally break Red Bull’s hold.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
That alignment – Vasseur on the pit wall, Leclerc and Hamilton in the cockpit – will define whether Ferrari’s internal battles remain a storyline or become a fatal flaw.
Asked how he will handle the looming clear-the-air meeting, Hamilton stripped it back to basics.
“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.”
‘I’m not going to be silenced’
Hamilton’s radio messages in Mexico – emotional, pointed, and instantly replayed across the world – sparked claims that his words were calculated, designed to send a message as much as to express anger.
He rejects that outright.
“I don’t really care how everyone feels about what I said,” he replied. “I wear my heart on my sleeve when I say how I feel in the moment.”
He then offered a window into what it is actually like inside the cockpit when those messages are broadcast.
“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 an incident in Mexico practice with Isack Hadjar as an example of what happens when drivers stay quiet.
“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 next test of that authenticity comes this weekend at Interlagos, on a circuit that punishes hesitation and magnifies tension between team-mates. Ferrari know they cannot afford another self-inflicted wound. Hamilton knows he will not dial himself down.
The question now is simple: can Ferrari harness that fire for a title fight in 2025, or will it keep burning holes in their own chances?
