'Of course there is tension' - how Leclerc sees Ferrari Mexico fallout

As Lewis Hamilton and Fred Vasseur have faced a barrage of questions about Ferrari’s Mexican Grand Prix debacle in Brazil, and what needs to be done to ensure Hamilton and Charles Leclerc can actually race one another without hurting the team’s interests, Leclerc’s view has been basically absent from the debate.

He’s been understandably late to this discussion, owing to the birth of his first child this past week, and in his own words “the time where I've had Bianca in my arms, there wasn't much more or much else in my head, and that's been the case until probably Thursday night when I arrived and when it was time to speak with Fred and Lewis”.

There was a brief comment in the media pen after Friday practice, when Leclerc said he considered the matter “fully settled” following those internal talks, and that “I don’t think we should be speaking about it too much going forward”.

After qualifying on Saturday Leclerc had to field several more questions aimed at getting him to open up on this matter, and he pretty much stuck to the same script.

“From my perspective I was very straightforward of course and I think it was good to speak,” he said. “I think this is always needed after a moment like this.

“I think it took proportions that are way too big, but it has been around also for way too long.

“At the same time it was a very special week for me so I couldn't really have those discussions before and it was important to have those discussions, but now I consider that a closed chapter and I think it will be important to look ahead.”

But as much as Leclerc was trying to move the F1 world on from what happened last Sunday in Mexico, he also in the same breath confirmed the competitive tension between himself and Hamilton that Vasseur is surely going to have his work cut out trying to manage.

Leclerc said “yes of course” when asked if everything was now OK between him and Hamilton, before adding: “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.

“Sometimes you disagree and you've got to find a common ground.”

For now it would seem common ground has been found, at least publicly facing.

Hamilton told Sky F1 after qualifying that “me and Charles, we sat and spoke and we squashed it, and we’re moving on.

“We still have a huge amount of respect for each other, and I’m glad we had a chat, and now we move on.

“We’ve been getting along just fine as normal, so sometimes in those scenarios it just takes having a conversation.

"There’s been no demands from either side, it’s just been…we’ve both given our points and areas that we can do better and support each other and yeah, hoping to have better races moving forwards.”

So it would seem Hamilton and Leclerc are now in the calm after the storm, but it won’t take much for those tensions to re-emerge and test Ferrari’s patience once more.