“No bad feelings” – Charles Leclerc on Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari team order frustration

Charles Leclerc insists he has “no bad feelings” with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton after controversial strategy calls saw the pair twice swap positions during the Miami Grand Prix.

Hamilton complained over team radio that he should be freed from behind Leclerc given he was on medium tyres compared to Leclerc on the hard compound, and the seven-time world champion grew increasingly exasperated as he was kept from passing.

Leclerc was eventually told to let Hamilton through but, after he failed to catch Andrea Kimi Antonelli in sixth, the positions were reversed.

The Monegasque claimed he was unaware of Hamilton’s complaints and has no issues with his team-mate, instead saying Ferrari itself has to improve in such situations.

“I knew Lewis was on a medium, so if anything he would struggle a bit more to go to the end than me, so we had to take care of tyres, but I understand as well that he wanted to try and do something different, so I appreciate that,” said Leclerc.

“I mean I would have done the same thing if I was him, trying to be a bit more aggressive with the medium tyres, so there’s no bad feelings with Lewis, not at all.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“We need to do better, that’s for sure. Today was not ideal and was far from maximising our potential, but we’ve got to regroup as a team and be better.

“I just think we maybe should have discussed a little bit more before doing the swap because obviously you are trying to go to the end with those tyres, so I’m trying to do a good job with my tyres and then everything is tricky, and I did not expect Carlos [Sainz] to be so close.

“All of this made the situation a bit trickier, but again I think there’s plenty for us to look at. As I said, we need to do a step, and we need to be robust enough that whenever we find ourselves in those situations we do better.

“I think we will be quite aligned on the fact that today wasn’t the Sunday we wanted and even though the pace is not there, I don’t think there was any miracles. If everything had gone perfectly maybe we would have finished in front of Kimi, but that’s it.”

Leclerc himself gave a couple of feisty radio messages about hurting his tyres once in the dirty air of Hamilton, but he did concede that the pair scrapping for the minor points positions also played a part.

“There is the frustration already that I was fighting for P8 at the time and I was not making any gains,” he added.

“I was really struggling with the car, so there’s the frustration of that and then all the rest, it all adds up. The radio is not always the real picture.

“I was obviously focusing on my race, on my tyres, I was trying to really keep them because I had already the first lap fighting with Carlos with the new tyres and that’s not really what I wanted, so then I had to take care of my tyres and that was it.”

Photos from Miami GP – Race