Leclerc Hits Out at Media Focus on Ferrari Battles
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari face unfair scrutiny whenever he clashes with team-mate Lewis Hamilton on track. He made that point at Wednesday’s official FIA press conference ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. The debate around Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari has followed the team since their Turn 1 coming together at Monza. Leclerc used the Baku media session to push back, arguing the reaction was out of proportion given similar incidents elsewhere in the field that day.
Ferrari Driver Defends Hamilton Track Clashes in Official FIA Presser
Leclerc has driven for Ferrari since 2019, and he says the team’s every move gets picked apart more than most on the grid. “I’ve been with Ferrari since 2019 now, and I know how everything we do is over-analysed, over-discussed and very often the conclusions that are taken after those kind of fights are the wrong ones,” he said, according to a Crash.net report.
Asked about his relationship with Hamilton after their battles this year, Leclerc was clear the two drivers put the team first. “We only need to speak with Lewis to kind of understand we’ve been doing that all our lives. We both want to win and there’s competition, but we also want to win as a team and to make Ferrari come out on top eventually. That is the priority,” he said.
He added that racing his team-mate hard is part of the appeal rather than a problem. “I enjoyed fighting with Lewis, and that’s what’s exciting in Formula 1, is to be fighting against the best, and Lewis is definitely up there, so for me it’s a big challenge, but I’m enjoying it,” he said.
Scuderia Suffer Compromised Monza Result After Turn 1 Collision
Leclerc and Hamilton made contact at the start of the Italian Grand Prix, with Ferrari’s result compromised as a consequence. Leclerc accepted responsibility afterwards. The pair held clear-the-air talks, and he was open about where he had gone too far when asked whether the rules of engagement between team-mates are clear enough. “Turn 2 in Monza is something that I’ve said repeatedly that it’s not something that we want to see ever happen again, and that’s going too far on my side, but I’ve been through it already,” he said.
Leclerc’s central complaint is not the incident itself but the coverage that followed it. He pointed out that three of the four fastest teams at Monza had similar battles that weekend, each ending with a car in the gravel or on the grass. Only Ferrari’s clash dominated the headlines afterwards. “In Monza, if you look, the four top teams, three of them had fights like this with the car finishing in the grass and at the end of the day, the only thing we are speaking about still now is the red cars, which I don’t think is fair,” he said.
It is not the first flashpoint between the pair this year. They also raced hard against each other during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend in Shanghai, a clash that drew some of the same warnings regarding Hamilton’s arrival at Maranello from paddock observers.
Baku Track Action Begins as Ferrari Aim for Victory
Ferrari want to move past the Monza fallout, and the wider Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari storyline, once cars are back on track in Baku. Leclerc, who shared his qualifying predictions for the Azerbaijan weekend earlier this month, wants the focus back on results rather than on how he and Hamilton race each other. He made clear he has no interest in easing off against his team-mate just to quiet the noise. Ferrari’s competitive edge, he says, depends on both drivers racing at full pace while working for the same result.
