Hamilton says Ferrari have no rules for team-mate battles

After the Mexico City Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari had no rules of engagement for its drivers — and he did not know whether such rules would have changed Charles Leclerc’s actions in their opening-lap fight.

The battle allowed Max Verstappen to pass Hamilton for second place. Verstappen went on to win for Red Bull, with Hamilton finishing second.

Hamilton believed Ferrari would have won, probably with a one-two, had the two worked together on the opening lap. He said it was tough to lose positions when a team-mate “works against you” and that “something needs to change for sure”.

Leclerc took a different view. He said he too could be unhappy about how much Hamilton had pushed him off the track exiting Turn 1, but that such racing was the way it should be when fighting for a win. Both drivers made a mistake at Turn 4, he said, going straight without contact and giving Verstappen the chance to pass.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was also frustrated at the loss of a potential one-two. BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson wrote that, if Verstappen had not passed Hamilton as a result of the incident, Leclerc could have returned the place by Turn 11, as the rules required. Once Verstappen was between the Ferraris, however, staying in the lead was Leclerc’s only realistic option, Benson argued.

McLaren’s rules call for drivers to put the team result first and not crash into each other. Even so, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collided in the Singapore sprint.

Benson argues that telling the Ferrari pair not to fight on the opening lap in Mexico would effectively have meant asking Leclerc to concede the victory to Hamilton.