Lewis Hamilton has taken aim at Ferrari, claiming the team operates without a clear set of "rules of engagement" after a first‑lap incident with his compatriot Charles Leclerc at the Italian Grand Prix. The drama unfolded at Monza when Hamilton attempted an aggressive inside move on the opening corner, only to be forced onto the gravel on the exit of the chicane as Leclerc defended the inside line. The maneuver dropped Hamilton from his fourth‑grid start to tenth place, leaving him to battle back through the field before ultimately crossing the line in sixth.
Leclerc, who initially retained third place after the contact, suffered a spectacular crash on the second lap, handing the home crowd a disappointing weekend for Ferrari. In the post‑race interview, Hamilton lamented the absence of any written protocol at Ferrari, contrasting it with his experience at Mercedes. "When I was at Mercedes we had written rules of engagement," he said.
"We rarely had incidents like this, and when we did, they were resolved quickly. Here, there are no rules. We need to address that." Hamilton’s comments came as he prepared to join Ferrari in 2025, adding an extra layer of intrigue to his critique. Former world champion Nico Rosberg, now a Sky Sports F1 analyst, sided with Hamilton, stating that the rules are straightforward: if the driver on the outside is ahead at the apex, the driver on the inside must give room.
"Lewis was ahead going into the apex, so Charles had to leave space. He didn’t, so it’s 100 per cent Charles’ fault," Rosberg asserted. However, fellow commentator Martin Brundle offered a different perspective.
He argued that Hamilton’s own aggressive dive into Turn 1 set the stage for the clash, and that Leclerc was already ahead at the apex of Turn 2. "Leclerc was far enough ahead on the inside. I don’t think he would have taken a penalty," Brundle noted.
He added that the understeer Leclerc experienced on the first lap was a normal occurrence and not something that should be penalised. The race itself saw championship leader Kimi Antonelli surge from 19th on the grid to claim a stunning victory, extending his lead over Hamilton to 76 points.
Mercedes completed a one‑two finish with George Russell taking second, leaving Ferrari further behind in the standings. The result also reignited the ongoing debate about whether Ferrari should favour Hamilton over Leclerc given the British driver’s larger points haul.
Before the race, media speculation centred on whether team orders might be employed to maximise Hamilton’s championship chances. When asked after the race if Hamilton should be given priority over Leclerc, the seven‑time world champion replied, "We are too far past that now. It’s too late for that. 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 premature driver hierarchies, pointing to last year’s McLaren experience where Oscar Piastri led the championship early on but was eventually overtaken by teammate Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. "The outcome of the first corners is not good for the team," Vasseur said.
"It’s too early to decide before Monza. We still have time to discuss with the drivers." Leclerc, for his part, admitted that both he and Hamilton had taken the battle too far, but he questioned who was "forcing" a narrative that pits the teammates against each other. He recalled the previous round at Zandvoort, where Hamilton grew frustrated after being held up by Leclerc on a different strategy. "I don’t really know who is forcing that narrative that we are one against the other," Leclerc said.
"Zandvoort had too many talks already. Here, it’s true we went too far.
I tried to take the tightest line possible on Turn 2, but it wasn’t enough." Hamilton also expressed disappointment with Ferrari’s strategic choices during the race. He criticised the tyre selection after the early red flag and the decision not to pit him under a virtual safety car, which left him scrambling for grip on worn rubber.
"It’s one of the harder things to swallow today," he told Sky Sports F1. "I gave it everything, but we didn’t have the straight‑line speed and we became a sitting duck. I think we should have been on the hard tyre on the restart, but then we would have needed to overtake more people because we were further back than we should have been. I thought they would 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 makes additional pit stops risky, especially when rivals like Antonelli and Verstappen can afford an extra stop thanks to superior pace.
"We were ten seconds behind Max before the VSC and we finished ten seconds behind," he told Sky Sports F1. "If you pit, you have to overtake, and overtaking is not our favourite topic.
It would have been more difficult." Looking ahead, the F1 calendar turns to Madrid for the Spanish Grand Prix at the brand‑new Madring circuit. All sessions will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available via NOW, offering a flexible, contract‑free viewing option for fans worldwide.