Lewis Hamilton has taken aim at Ferrari, claiming the team operates without any clear "rules of engagement" after a dramatic first‑corner incident with his teammate Charles Leclerc during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The British driver, who started the race from fourth on the grid, attempted an aggressive move on the inside of Leclerc into the first chicane. Leclerc, however, defended the inside line and forced Hamilton onto the gravel on the exit, sending the former champion sliding back into the marbles. The consequence was immediate: Hamilton dropped from his original fourth‑place starting slot to tenth by the end of the opening lap and spent the remainder of the race fighting to recover lost ground.
Despite a strong effort, he could only manage to climb back to sixth place by the chequered flag. Leclerc, who initially held onto third after the contact, suffered a separate incident on lap two and crashed out, leaving Ferrari with a disappointing home‑race weekend and no points from their lead driver. "I think it comes down to rules of engagement," Hamilton said in the post‑race interview, referring to the unwritten protocols that teams usually enforce to prevent teammates from colliding.
"When I was at Mercedes we had written rules of engagement. We never really, really had it too bad.
There were a few moments between me and Nico [Rosberg] a couple of times, but more often it was smooth. Here, there are no rules. We need to address that." Hamilton's comments were especially pointed because he will join Ferrari as a driver in 2025, meaning his criticism arrives while he is still a rival on the grid. The controversy also comes amid a broader discussion about whether Ferrari should prioritize Hamilton over Leclerc given the Britishman's lead in the championship.
After the race, championship leader Kimi Antonelli (note: name likely intended to be Kimi Räikkönen) secured a stunning victory from nineteenth on the grid, extending his lead over Hamilton to 76 points. Meanwhile, George Russell finished second, pushing Hamilton further down the standings and widening the gap between the two Ferrari drivers.
When Sky Sports F1 asked Hamilton if he believed he should be given priority over Leclerc, the seven‑time world champion replied, "We are too far past that already. It's too late for that now.
I lost a lot of points today to those guys. We will do our best to keep pushing the rest of the season but they are out now, out ahead of us." Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur cautioned against making premature decisions about team orders. He cited last season's McLaren experience, where Oscar Piastri briefly led the championship before his teammate Lando Norris and Red Bull's Max Verstappen closed the gap and ultimately overtook him.
"The outcome of the first corners is not good for the team," Vasseur said. "Now, to see if we have a team order or whatever, I think the good comparison is that last year Piastri was leading McLaren at this stage of the season and if McLaren put everything on Piastri, Max Verstappen would have been champion. At one stage you have to take a decision but I think it was too early to take a decision before Monza.
Now we have time to discuss with the guys." Leclerc, for his part, admitted that both drivers had taken the early battle too far but questioned who was feeding the narrative that the two were at odds. He referenced the previous weekend at Zandvoort, where Hamilton was frustrated by being held up by Leclerc while the pair were on different strategies. "I don't really know who is forcing that narrative that we are one against the other," Leclerc told reporters. "Honestly, Zandvoort, there were way too many talks already.
Here, it's true that we went too far. I think Lewis in Turn 1, then Turn 2, I tried to do the tightest corner possible, but that was just not enough – and doing it here is not good." Hamilton also expressed disappointment with Ferrari's strategic choices during the race.
After an early red flag, he questioned the decision to fit him with a softer tyre compound and later criticized the team's choice not to pit him during a virtual safety car period. "It's one of the harder ones to swallow today," he said.
"I was definitely hoping for more. I gave it absolutely everything. We just didn't have the speed on the straights and we were mostly a sitting duck to the guys around me." He continued, "We will look internally and try to figure out what we could have done better.
I felt we should have been on the hard tyre on the restart but we also would have had to overtake people because we were further back than we were supposed to be. I thought they were going to stop us under the VSC but they didn't, so I ran out of tyres." Vasseur explained that Ferrari's lack of straight‑line speed made any additional pit stop a risky proposition, especially compared with Antonelli and Verstappen, who managed to finish on the podium despite similar challenges. "We were 10 seconds behind Max before the VSC and we finished 10 seconds behind," Vasseur told Sky Sports F1. "If you do this pit, you have to overtake and overtaking is not our favourite topic.
It would have been more difficult." Looking ahead, the Formula 1 calendar moves to Madrid for the Spanish Grand Prix at the newly built Madring circuit. All sessions will be broadcast live from Friday on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available via NOW – no contract required and cancel anytime.
The upcoming race will provide another opportunity for Hamilton and Leclerc to test the limits of their partnership and for Ferrari to decide whether to implement team orders or continue letting the drivers race each other freely. The outcome could shape the championship narrative for the rest of the season.