Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur warned Sunday that the first-lap collision between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the Italian Grand Prix was not good for the team, as the aftermath of a costly incident at Ferrari’s home race left Hamilton’s championship hopes all but extinguished.
They clashed at the opening corner at Monza, with Hamilton accusing his teammate of pushing him off the track and losing six positions as a result. The stewards took no action. Leclerc crashed out on the following lap. Hamilton finished sixth.
He disputed Leclerc’s characterization that both drivers shared fault, saying there was no shared responsibility, that he does not race dirty, has always raced cleanly and fairly and has always left space. He called for written rules of engagement and said Ferrari fans should not be worried about him.
Nico Rosberg, his former rival and the 2016 world champion, said the clash was entirely Leclerc’s fault while acknowledging that his approach to the corner had been aggressive.
Vasseur said he will discuss the incident with both drivers, adding that freezing positions between teammates is not an easy decision and that every team principal in the world would prefer to let drivers race. He declined before Monza to give Hamilton clear priority over Leclerc in the title fight.
The championship picture
The result leaves him 76 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli with 10 rounds remaining, a gap equivalent to more than three race wins. Antonelli won at Monza in a sensational drive from 19th on the grid.
He held a 28-point lead over Leclerc in the intra-Ferrari standings before Monza and leads his teammate by 36 points heading into Madrid. The internal Ferrari contest is now secondary to the question of whether either driver can still challenge Antonelli.
He said in the aftermath that it is now far too late for Ferrari to throw their weight behind him.
Vasseur’s position on team orders
Vasseur offered a pointed historical comparison to explain his reluctance to impose team orders. He said that last year Oscar Piastri was leading the championship at a similar point in the season and that if McLaren had frozen out Lando Norris in his favor, Max Verstappen would have become champion. He said a decision of that kind requires timing, and that before Monza it was too early.
The Piastri-Norris comparison does not map perfectly onto the situation, since McLaren’s drivers were competing for the same title that Verstappen was also chasing. But the broader point stands. Removing a teammate from competition while the championship is mathematically open can backfire if the favored driver then fails to deliver.
What it means going forward
The incident at Monza and the fallout represent the most visible public rupture between the two since Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season. Both carry an incident into the Madrid weekend that neither has fully acknowledged responsibility for, and Vasseur’s planned discussions will determine whether any formal protocol emerges for the remaining races.
He has seven world championships. The eighth, if it comes, will not come through the internal contest.
