Ferrari's Monza Misfire: Hamilton and Leclerc Clash
The tifosi came to Monza expecting fireworks from Ferrari. They got them on the first lap – just not in the way anyone in red would have wanted.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc lined up together on the second row, both on soft tyres, both with a clear shot at George Russell and Pierre Gasly ahead on the mediums. The script was obvious: launch well, work together, overwhelm the cars in front into Turn 1.
Instead, Ferrari’s two star drivers went to war with each other before they’d even cleared the opening chicane.
Team Battle, Not Teamwork
Hamilton dived to the inside of Leclerc on the run to the first chicane, seizing on a gap that was always going to close quickly. Leclerc, slightly ahead into the braking zone, held what Peter Windsor later called “Charles’ line” – the natural racing line for the car marginally in front.
What followed was messy. And costly.
The pair made contact mid-corner. Hamilton was forced onto the dirt as Leclerc edged wider, the seven-time world champion bouncing over the run-off and haemorrhaging positions. What should have been a coordinated attack on Russell and Gasly turned into a self-inflicted wound.
Hamilton’s anger crackled over the radio. He demanded clearer rules of engagement, invoking his Mercedes days, when strict internal protocols governed how teammates could race each other in high-risk moments like Turn 1 at Monza.
Windsor, in his post-race analysis, sided with the Briton.
No Discipline in the Team
For Windsor, the clash was not just a racing incident. It was a symptom.
“It’s all a result of Ferrari not having the discipline that they should have,” he argued, pointing squarely at the team’s reluctance to lay down firm orders to its star pairing. With Hamilton and Leclerc in the garage, Windsor believes the Ferrari pit wall has become hesitant, even intimidated.
In his view, nobody wants to be the one to tell Hamilton or Leclerc how to handle the first corner. Nobody wants to dictate who leads, who yields, who protects the team’s race rather than their own.
The outcome at Turn 1 was, in Windsor’s words, “a classic example of no discipline in the team.” He suggested Leclerc felt remorse, Hamilton deep frustration – but by then, the damage was done.
Entitled to the Line, But Over the Limit
From a pure racing perspective, Windsor accepted that Leclerc initially had the right to the corner.
“As they go in, Lewis goes for the inside,” he explained. At the apex of the first right-hander, the two Ferraris were effectively side by side, but with Leclerc just enough ahead to claim the racing line under normal circumstances.
Hamilton, though, refused to back out. He stayed alongside, trying to force the issue. Leclerc, in response, began to edge wider, using more of the road as the pair powered through the chicane.
The squeeze left Hamilton with nowhere to go. To avoid a heavier collision, he bounced over the dirty part of the track, suffered a “bit of a bash,” and dropped three or four places. Windsor’s verdict was blunt: Hamilton had indeed been pushed off.
Technically, he said, there was “no doubt about it.”
Leclerc’s Slide and Heavy Crash
Leclerc briefly salvaged something from the chaos. He climbed back through the field to second place, seemingly resetting his race and Ferrari’s hopes in front of their home crowd.
It didn’t last.
He soon lost out to Gasly and then Max Verstappen, the soft-tyre advantage fading and the early skirmish doing nothing to help tyre life or rhythm. Under pressure again, this time from Oscar Piastri, Leclerc’s afternoon unravelled for good.
Defending hard at the Parabolica, he lost control and went off heavily, his race ending in the barriers at one of Monza’s most iconic corners. Another Ferrari at Monza, another brutal image for the season review.
Hamilton, delayed at the start and never quite recovering his early momentum, could do no better than sixth at the flag. The result leaves him 76 points adrift of Kimi Antonelli in the standings – a gulf that underlines how costly days like this can be.
Ferrari have two superstar drivers, a car quick enough to fight at the front, and a fanbase that demands nothing less than ruthlessness. The question now is simple: how many more lessons like Monza do they need before someone on that pit wall stops being afraid to take control?
