Lewis Hamilton has said there remain no rules of engagement between the drivers at Ferrari, despite the 41-year-old calling for the team to employ them after he clashed with his teammate, Charles Leclerc, at the last round in Monza.
Hamilton was forced wide by Leclerc at turn two on the opening lap at the Italian Grand Prix, which he felt had been unacceptable. Speaking before the first meeting for the Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring circuit in Madrid this weekend, Leclerc admitted he had been at fault and Hamilton said the pair had talked frankly and cleared the air in a forthright fashion.
In Monza Hamilton had unfavourably compared Ferrari to his former team Mercedes, stating: “When I was at Mercedes we had written rules of engagement. Here there are no rules. That’s something that needs to probably change.”
Hamilton noted that he had positive discussions with the team principal, Fred Vasseur, but when asked if there was an agreement on rules of engagement between the two drivers, he was unequivocal.
“There was not,” 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.”
The seven-time champion said in Monza he believed Leclerc had forced him off track and pointedly noted that he had always tried to race cleanly. In Madrid Leclerc took responsibility for what happened. “I obviously know I went too far in turn two,” he said. “I said it to Lewis and I think it’s very clear what we should do or should avoid going forward.”
Hamilton praised his teammate’s attitude in clearing up the issues. “What’s great is that there was no shying away from having a discussion,” he said. “We sat face to face, just him and I, talked about it and we were just both open and honest. We squashed it and we can move on.
“That shows the maturity from him. I think it’s healthy. It’s a relationship we have built over time. 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. But it’s real positive.”
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The race in Monza was won by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who now leads Hamilton, who is third in the championship, by 76 points, a gap the British driver conceded was all but unbridgeable. He had also called on Ferrari to make changes to sharpen procedures and execution, operationally and strategically, after Monza to maximise potential points but conceded that it would not be achievable overnight.
“It’s a longer term process, it’s not something we can just change into this weekend,” Hamilton said. “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.
“It starts with the acknowledgment which internally we have and so then it just comes to working out the solutions together and it just doesn’t happen overnight. We’ll probably try things and it still won’t be good, but we’ll eventually get to the point we need.”
