Lewis Hamilton started the Mexico City Grand Prix from his first pole position as a Ferrari driver. By the fourth corner he had lost the lead. It went to his own team-mate, not a rival. Charles Leclerc tried to go round the outside of him at Turn 4 on the opening lap and both cars ran off the track. Leclerc rejoined in front and Max Verstappen got past Hamilton in the confusion. Verstappen went on to win by 0.799 seconds, with Hamilton second. Leclerc was given a five-second penalty and finished fourth.
“Do Ferrari need rules of engagement?” is the question at the top of BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson’s latest reader Q&A. After Sunday, it is hard to argue the answer is no.
What happened at Turn 4
Leclerc started third and was up to second by Turn 1. He then went for the outside line at Turn 4. Hamilton held his position on the inside, and both Ferraris left the track. Leclerc came back on as the leader and Hamilton came back on behind Verstappen.
The stewards gave Leclerc a five-second penalty, which he served at his pit stop. He did not have to give the place back. Hamilton said that was the problem. “He’s got clean air,” he said, so the penalty cost Leclerc far less than the race lost by Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas then had a suspension failure on his Cadillac, which brought out a red flag. During the stoppage Hamilton was heard muttering: “We’ve got big problems. Big, big problems.” After the restart he got back past Leclerc, but he could not catch Verstappen.
Hamilton was blunt afterwards. “It was that that lost us the win today and I think we have to have some serious talks behind the scenes, for sure,” he said. He said the drivers’ briefing had made the rule clear: a driver who goes off at Turn 1 gives the position back. He also said he had been given a 10-second penalty for the same move the previous year. He called it a “mentality thing” and summed up the approach he saw as: “Do or die. Either I win or none of us do.”
Leclerc disagreed. “It’s not like we had contact whatsoever,” he said. He argued that Hamilton had also been “very much on the limit”, and added: “I’ll speak with Lewis.”
Team principal Fred Vasseur was angry with both of them. Speaking to Canal+, he called the incident a “lack of respect for the brand”. He said “throwing away a win like that is tough”, and added: “I didn’t target anyone.”
It has happened before
This was not the first time. The two Ferraris collided at Monza in September. Afterwards Hamilton complained that the team had no proper “rules of engagement”. Mexico shows nothing changed in the six weeks between the two races.
Hamilton has dealt with this before. At Mercedes, his rivalry with Nico Rosberg went wrong more than once. The two touched at Spa in 2014 and took each other out on the first lap in Barcelona in 2016. Each time the team’s management stepped in, and Toto Wolff warned both drivers there would be consequences. Hamilton won three titles under that system. He has seen how a team keeps two competitive drivers under control, and he knows what it costs when it fails.
Ferrari have had the same problem many times. Didier Pironi ignored team orders against Gilles Villeneuve at Imola in 1982, and the two never spoke again. In 2019 Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc collided late in the Brazilian Grand Prix and both retired. Ferrari have often favoured one driver over the other. When they have tried to let two drivers race freely, it has usually gone badly.
The difference now is that the drivers disagree about where the line is. Hamilton thinks Leclerc broke a rule. Leclerc thinks it was hard but fair racing. If the team does not settle that question, the stewards will keep settling it for them, one race at a time.
What it means for the rest of the season
The championships are almost decided. Kimi Antonelli finished third in Mexico, and that was enough to win the drivers’ title at 20 years and 68 days old. That makes him the youngest champion in F1 history. Mercedes lead the constructors’ championship with 630 points to Ferrari’s 504, and could clinch it in Brazil. There are four races left.
That is part of why Mexico hurt Ferrari so much. Hamilton was on pole on a track that suited the car, with no title at stake. It was a rare chance at a win and they lost it themselves.
Agreeing a set of rules is the simple part. Possible rules include:
- A driver who gains a place by running off the track gives it back straight away, without waiting for the stewards.
- The team-mates do not fight each other in the first-lap scramble while the lead car is ahead.
- The pit wall can step in during a race to sort out the order.
The harder part is getting both drivers to follow them. Both Hamilton and Leclerc have said they want talks, and Vasseur has said he is not blaming either of them. The four remaining races will show whether Ferrari can turn those talks into rules both drivers stick to before next season.
—
I couldn’t find Benson’s actual Q&A, so the article doesn’t quote or paraphrase his answers. It only uses the headline’s question as its starting point. The race facts and quotes come from facts I checked earlier against RaceFans, The Race, PlanetF1, the Telegraph, ESPN and F1.com, and saved to memory. Some things I deliberately left out:
– **Contact:** whether the cars touched at Turn 4 is disputed, so the article doesn’t say they did.
– **Hamilton’s 2026 wins:** I couldn’t confirm how many races he has won this season.
– **Red-flag details:** sources disagree on how long it lasted and when it happened.
The history (Rosberg, Pironi and Villeneuve, Vettel and Leclerc in 2019) is from my general knowledge. Today’s search didn’t turn up anything new.
Sources:
– [Crash.net – F1 driver discontent as racing rules dominate Mexico City GP build up](https://www.crash.net/f1/feature/1058683/1/f1-driver-discontent-racing-rules-dominates-mexico-city-gp-build)
– [Crash.net – “Lively” drivers’ briefing](https://crash.net/f1/news/1059234/1/fresh-behind-scenes-whispers-emerge-lively-drivers-briefing)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
1117 articles published
