> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ferrari's Leclerc-Hamilton problem is far from solved - URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ferrari-leclerc-hamilton-f1-problem-far-from-solved/ - Published: 2026-11-13T07:52:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-13T07:52:40.000Z - Description: Don't be fooled by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton playing nicely in Brazil - their Ferrari F1 tensions are alive and well - Author: Josh Suttill - Tags: Formula 1, #charles-leclerc, #lewis-hamilton, #ferrari, #primary_homepage_feature Don't be fooled by Ferrari's Formula 1 drivers playing nicely in Brazil; there are still very real tensions between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. The drivers and team principal Fred Vasseur got together in Brazil to try to talk things through after Hamilton's extraordinary criticism of Leclerc following their victory-losing Mexico run-in. That meeting proved constructive, and Leclerc and Hamilton were very well-behaved during the Brazilian Grand Prix, even following team orders and leaving each other plenty of room, unlike in Mexico. Hamilton's summary was: "Everything's good. Fred brought us together. Fred was great in the meeting. And then he just left me and Charles to just give our points. "We both had a really good, open discussion. And it's all good now. We'll just move on." But you can't compare Mexico and Brazil, so Vasseur didn't bother reaching for what would have been an easy pat-on-the-back. "You can't compare the two situations," Vasseur said, in respect of Leclerc and Hamilton's cordiality on-track at Interlagos. "Honestly, we had a good discussion on Friday. We cleared the situation. We did a good reset on the mindset. "They left my room joking together. It's good. I hope that it will last, to stay like this." All Vasseur can do for now is "hope" it lasts because that Brazil fight was only ever going to be for minor points-paying positions, not a race win or a podium. So there's every reason to believe that when the Ferrari is back fighting for wins, be it in Las Vegas or Qatar or Abu Dhabi, Hamilton and Leclerc are going to be back fighting tooth and nail. After all, Leclerc admitted post-meeting: "Of course there is tension, of course we want to finish ahead of each other, and sometimes we are not going to do things right, and it's OK sometimes to disagree on the way you see things. "But at the same time discussing about those helps a whole lot." ## A former team-mate's view In light of the Leclerc-Hamilton tensions, Leclerc's ex-team-mate at Ferrari Carlos Sainz was asked about his time with Leclerc. Hamilton had, after all, pointed to Leclerc's time alongside Sainz and Sebastian Vettel as evidence that he races his team-mates harder. "I have relatively good memories of my time with Charles and the fights we had," Sainz said in Brazil. "It is true that when you're fighting for wins, there's always more pressure, more things down the line. So you become naturally a bit more selfish than when you are fighting in the midfield for a P8 or a P9. "It's more difficult maybe to follow exactly the ideal situation that the team would like you to follow, because there's a win down the line. There was wins down the line back then, but I always respected Charles. He always respected me. We never had contacts or anything like this. We just had strong fights. You remember Monza, Vegas. There was plenty of hot moments during the year. "What was difficult more was the fanbase. The PR and the fanbase was really ignited back then, and it was very polarised between Charles and me. And I remember suffering a bit from the very hardcore fans of Charles insulting or wishing me bad. "Maybe some Italian media also saying that I was not being enough of a number two when I needed to be, and vice-versa whenever Charles had to do it. "So it's more the pressure surrounding Ferrari, that involves Ferrari, than the actual issues that I had with Charles, which were always resolved that same night when we called each other with a more cold head and we always managed to find the solution and the way forward." Sainz felt it is an inevitable problem with having two equals in the same team. "I cannot remember no Formula 1 team that has had two good drivers fighting at the front that haven't had issues when fighting for wins," Sainz added. "You can choose whether to have a number two as a second driver, or you can have two good drivers that will create those issues. But you cannot have one without the other, in my opinion. And you will never have one without the other. "Maybe in Ferrari it gets a bit exacerbated with everything that involves Ferrari, but I cannot remember a moment where this hasn't happened. It happened in Mercedes. It happened in McLaren the last few years. It happened in Ferrari. "So I don’t know when it hasn't happened. It is part of Formula 1\. And if you are a team principal and you know you're going to have two great drivers, you're always going to have that issue. "I don't think you can ever calm those two guys 100% down and expect them not to go for a move for a race win." ## Why Leclerc-Hamilton is different There are some parallels to the tensions in 2019 when Leclerc managed to steal Ferrari away from four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel as a 21-year-old. [This piece by Mark Hughes](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/how-leclerc-swung-ferrari-away-from-vettel/) still stands as an excellent account of that. Back then, the drivers were 'free to race', the team principal (Mattia Binotto) tried to play things fairly, the drivers were close enough in performance to routinely be near each other on track, and there was a huge battle for supremacy. Leclerc ultimately won that battle convincingly, with Sainz brought into replace Vettel, but never as an equal to Leclerc. (That didn't mean he was a dutiful number two either. He was too quick for that.) Leclerc and Sainz had their flashpoints, but ultimately things never uncontrollably spilt over for one good reason: Leclerc was ahead of Sainz around two-thirds of the time. The dynamic therefore was very different: Leclerc even ended up helping Sainz to the only non-Verstappen victory of 2023 in Singapore. That was evidence of Leclerc playing the long game, knowing a small sacrifice there would only strengthen his position once Ferrari had a title-challenging car. There was ultimately enough of a performance gap for there never to be too much needle between them. Leclerc didn't see Sainz as a threat to his position as Ferrari's spearhead. He was right, as Ferrari chose to replace Sainz with Hamilton just a few months after that Singapore win. And it's no coincidence that in 2025, there being a clear performance gap between Leclerc and Hamilton meant there wasn't much needle between them. Suddenly they're very closely matched in 2026, and the Leclerc-Vettel era tension is immediately re-exposed because now there is a threat to Leclerc's position. Leclerc was previously fairly comfortable, like Vettel was in 2015-18 as the focal point of the team, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen very much a support act. Now there is an active battle for supremacy. If Ferrari improves its power unit and has a title-challenging car next year, both Hamilton and Leclerc want to be the one leading that charge. It's why the prospect of Ferrari's Brazil meeting being any kind of full stop on its Leclerc-Hamilton problem is absolute nonsense. That's not going to change until Leclerc has destroyed another world champion - as he did to Vettel - or until he's the one destroyed by a team-mate.