Ferrari Has a Driver Problem

This past Sunday at the Mexico GP, Kimi Antonelli wrapped up the 2026 F1 driver's championship four races early as Max Verstappen took his third win of what has been a rough year for Red Bull. It was also a sloppy race in terms of driving standards, with penalties for incidents being awarded as early as FP2. The biggest clash, however, was between Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. People are starting to say out loud what we've known all season long. Ferrari has a problem: it can't control its drivers.

To me, the incident is clear-cut. Leclerc made an aggressive move into the turn 4 chicane. Hamilton drove as if Leclerc didn't exist, not only pushing Leclerc off the track but also running off himself as well. Leclerc cut the chicane and took the lead of the race.

Obviously, Leclerc earned the penalty he got for the move, but Hamilton is not nearly as blameless as he seems to think he is. That brings us to the first issue: F1's rules on leaving space, or the lack thereof. As far as I can tell, the rule is "first to the apex". If you're the inside car, you basically seem to be given free rein to do whatever you want to the car on the outside.

To anyone who knows anything about motorsport, that's an obviously braindead rule.

As another famous F1 driver once said, "All the time, you have to leave the space." An integral part of motorsport is coexisting with other cars on the track. If a car is to your outside, you have to leave enough room for them to make the corner, and they have to give you the same courtesy. Pretending that all corners are single-car corners and refusing to let the outside car make any kind of a move completely destroys any possibility for real racing to take place.

That said, F1's crappy rulebook isn't the main focus of this rant, so we'll set that aside and move to problem number two: Hamilton's response.

Everyone is acting like Leclerc was going way too fast to make the corner. I disagree. I think that it would have worked if Hamilton hadn't run him fully into the grass. Remember, Hamilton himself ran completely off the track, which is what opened the door for Verstappen to take 2nd and eventually the win. What might have happened to Leclerc is speculative. What happened to Hamilton is definitive: he didn't make the corner.

Hamilton's response, as it's been all year, was to slam the team and demand "serious talks" post-race.

I flagged Hamilton's attitude toward Ferrari back in September in the aftermath of the Italian GP. Regarding another clash with Leclerc, Hamilton claimed not to be interested in arguing and fighting about the team in public while doing exactly that, claiming that "here there are no rules."

The problem with Hamilton's comments all season is that they don't come off as "I want what's best for the team." They sound a lot like "We need to work together as long as working together is to my benefit." Hamilton doesn't want a Ferrari 1-2. He wants a Ferrari 1-2 with him as the 1. Leclerc is well within his right to fight for results; he doesn't have to pull over and accept 2nd just because Hamilton says so.

Hamilton has come into a team with an established no. 1 driver and wants all attention and resources to be shifted to him. That's not how it works.

Leclerc is also willing to take responsibility for his actions. He acknowledged in Italy that he pushed things too far in the incident with Hamilton. As for Hamilton, he seems flatly uninterested in taking responsibility for anything in his control. In the Singapore GP, where he overruled his team and made a strategy call that ultimately lost him any kind of a good result, his apology seemed very half-hearted and insincere.

At the end of the day, Ferrari has done this to themselves, making a big signing of a driver with a big ego who has historically screwed over his teammates for the sake of his own success. Hamilton did this to himself, moving away from a team that has moved heaven and earth for him and expecting his new bosses to do the same. Truly two entities that deserve each other.