{"id":821574,"date":"2026-11-02T09:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821574\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T09:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:20:11","slug":"charles-leclerc-responds-to-lewis-hamiltons-call-for-ferrari-talks-after-mexico-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/821574\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc responds to Lewis Hamilton’s call for Ferrari talks after Mexico GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc<\/a> says Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s driving was \u201cvery much on the limit\u201d as he defended his own move at the beginning of the Mexico City Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Leclerc attacked polesitter Hamilton at Turn 4 on the opening lap and made it out of the scrap ahead of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it was definitely an opportunity. In Turn 1 there was a gap on the outside and I had quite a lot of speed around the outside of Turn 1, and there was very little space for Turn 2, which is expected for the win obviously,\u201d Leclerc said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then four, five, Lewis and I both tried to brake very late. We both didn\u2019t make the corner. I obviously cut the track, which eventually then after Turn 5 there was Max in between, which made the situation more confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the stewards later gave Leclerc a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Hamilton also lost out to Verstappen, who used the opportunity to put his car in second. When Leclerc later served the penalty at his pitstop, Verstappen emerged at the front of the pack and eventually won the race.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said afterwards that the incident had cost Ferrari<\/a> the win, and that \u201cwe have to have some serious talks behind the scenes for sure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the pair now needed more rules between them, Leclerc said a conversation would follow, but suggested that Hamilton\u2019s frustrations aren\u2019t necessarily aimed at him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will talk about it obviously. I don\u2019t know if he was very unhappy with what I did, because I felt like it was very much on the limit also what he did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was maybe more angry with the whole situation, how the situation was dealt in four, five with the penalty etc. So this is something we\u2019ll talk about for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc also played down the incident, admitting that both had made an error as they fought for track position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting for the win and so of course there\u2019s going to be very little margin left from him and from me. At the end we both did a mistake going into Turn 4,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: James Sutton \/ Formula 1 \/ Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we had contact or whatsoever. We both went straight and that gave the opportunity for Max to overtake, so I don\u2019t think it should be that much of a talking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it was close, one, two, three was very close, but I was expecting it to fight for the lead. Four, five, we both made a mistake that I paid with a penalty. Then you can argue whether it\u2019s enough or not, and Lewis then paid out of five with Max.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stewards had ruled that both cars had entered the corner with excessive speed. But they said Leclerc was not entitled to claim the corner, and had completed an overtake off the track.<\/p>\n

Hamilton had called for Leclerc to hand the place back during the race, but the Monegasque didn\u2019t receive guidance from the Ferrari team to confirm the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaking with the team, I didn\u2019t really have a clear feedback, and I think it was just confusing enough to keep the position, and I was expecting some kind of penalty, and then we paid the penalty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke briefly with the team to try and understand. I asked, \u2018What should I do now?\u2019 And it\u2019s always very tricky, and obviously in that situation you kind of expect you have to do something, but is it second? Is it third? Is it fourth? Well, fourth probably didn\u2019t make sense, but second or third.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at the end I kept going. Obviously it\u2019s going to be a bit of a talking point for sure next briefing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc added that he understood why the size of the penalty was being questioned, but said the rules left little room for anything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also rules written, and that\u2019s a bit the difficult thing as well, is that this situation, if you take it by the rule, is not so different to other situations. However, I do agree with you. Sometimes there are scenarios in which you gain more than the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think eventually we just need tracks that doesn\u2019t allow us to play with those kind of limits and grey areas, because then it ends up being a bit of a difficult one, and I\u2019m sure many people will see it in a very bad way, which I understand, but it is the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether drivers had been warned of harsher penalties for similar moves after George Russell<\/a> cut the chicane in Monaco last year, Leclerc said that had only applied to that circuit.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Monaco yes, in Monaco for sure. I don\u2019t think it was a general thing for everywhere, but again, I am not completely disagreeing. It\u2019s just that those rules can have some grey zones on some tracks like today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it. We kind of spoke about it on Thursday with the drivers at the driver briefing. I think that the final solution is to have a track that doesn\u2019t allow you to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc believes that changing the circuits is the only real answer, having discussed the issue with his fellow drivers before the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, honestly, we\u2019ve been speaking about it all Thursday at the drivers\u2019 briefing, trying to understand in which way should we best take a decision with that. And I think the conclusion of everyone is that we first need probably to change the tracks and make sure that there\u2019s no places or tracks where you can take those amount of risk on the inside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was obviously a wall at the exit of Turn 4, neither Lewis or I will have pushed the braking point that much, so I think there\u2019s some things that we can improve track-wise in order to make it more simple, because otherwise it\u2019s very complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc says Lewis Hamilton\u2019s driving was \u201cvery much on the limit\u201d as he defended his own move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[94383,1665,269565,831,372,59,832,94382,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-821574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-autodromo-hermanos-rodriguez","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-charles-leclerc-responds-to-lewis-hamiltons-call-for-ferrari-talks-after-mexico-gp","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-gb","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mexican-gp","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}