As I predicted here last week, Ferrari were the team to beat at the 2026 Formula One Mexico City Grand Prix yet it was Max Verstappen who claimed his sixth victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Charles Leclerc was the quickest in both Friday practice sessions and was a mere tenth behind Lando Norris, who topped the time sheets on Saturday morning.
Qualifying Drama and Front-Row Battles
But for a mistake through the esses on his final qualifying run, Leclerc should have taken pole position. Yet it was his teammate who finally got on top of the SF-26 who claimed pole, with a shock lap from nowhere from George Russell to start in second place.
The Chaotic Turn 4 Flashpoint
It looked as though the Monegasque driver would simply drive around the outside of Hamilton, such was his pace, but as the corner tightened for Turn 2, Leclerc dutifully slipped in behind the sister Ferrari.
On the approach to Turn 4 both Ferraris were overly optimistic, missed their braking points, and left the track. Leclerc headed straight across the grass, while Hamilton attempted to return in an orderly fashion. Max Verstappen, ever the opportunist, saw the mistake and slipped his Red Bull into second place. Hamilton immediately demanded over team radio that Ferrari order Charles to give the place back, but the matter was now complicated due to Verstappen sitting between the Ferrari pair.
Hamilton’s Post-Race Outspoken Criticism
“We lost valuable points. We, as a team, worked so hard. We could have easily had a one-two today. We had the pace to do so,” reflected Hamilton in the media pen after the chequered flag. The seven-time world champion then went on a rant about his teammate and demanded a firmer hand from team principal Fred Vasseur.
“So we’re going into Turn 4, first and second. If we just held position, I think anything can happen in the race, but when your teammate works against you, and then you lose positions like that, it’s definitely tough.
“So we’ll just talk about it offline, and it’s not really worth saying too much more. We don’t have rules of engagement,and whether or not that will change anything from Charles’ side, I don’t know.”
So Charles is now “working against” Lewis, and even if the team implement rules of engagement between the pair,Hamilton believes Leclerc would just ignore them. That’s some pretty bad karma going on with the boys from Maranello.
When Hamilton was leading the charge to catch Kimi Antonelli in the summer, he accused the team of not working together, and this rhetoric returned in Mexico. In fact, Hamilton was really calling for the team to prioritise him over his teammate.
“I think the core thing to remember, which maybe comes with age, is that every decision you make in the car impacts all the people who work in the background – the whole team. So working as a team is part of our job and part of our contract:we have to work as a team, which we could have easily done today,” said Lewis.
He again calls for Fred Vasseur to intervene under offices of ‘taking action.’ “So it’s a shame to see us lose as we did, and that will just continue unless action is taken and a real, deep, serious conversation is had, so it shouldn’t happen moving forward.”
Digging Into Past Rivalries and Mentalities
Lewis goes on to press Ferrari to hold talks but admits “it won’t be easy, but it must be done.” He then launches an incredible attack on Leclerc, accusing him of previously sabotaging teammates and having a mentality of ‘If I can’t win,they won’t either.’
“Before I joined this team, when I was in Mercedes, I watched and witnessed the back and forth between Charles and Carlos [Sainz] for several races where they were battling so much that the person ahead just pulled away, and they had the pace to actually win the race. But it’s one thing when that’s happening for fourth and fifth, as opposed to first and second,and you lose the win. That’s significant.
“The guy’s 28 years old, so I don’t think it’s an age thing. I think it’s a mentality thing. It’s like ‘do or die. Like either I win or none of us do’, and it shouldn’t be that,” claimed Hamilton.
When Lewis’ comments were put to Charles Leclerc, he appeared somewhat bemused but suggested Hamilton’s actions were also close to the edge. “We will talk about it obviously. I don’t 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,” he said. “I 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’ll talk about for sure.”
Stewards’ Verdict and Pundit Reactions
Leclerc did receive a five-second time penalty from the stewards, but with Verstappen now in between the Ferrari pair and on the slower medium tyre, Charles managed to build a sufficient gap before the pit stop to nullify the punishment. The stewards could have made the punishment ten seconds, but presumably because both Ferrari drivers left the circuit, it was mitigated downwards.
This is not the first time it has become apparent that Ferrari have no racing guidelines for their drivers, and ex-F1 champion Nico Rosberg believes enough is enough. “Really Fred Vasseur, he needs to start to act,” the 2016 world champion told Sky F1. “Once again, as Lewis said before the race, there was no discussion, like clear racing guidelines between the two.
“It needs to happen otherwise it’s just going to keep going like this. And it gets really bad when the drivers take it in their own hands and disregard whatever is being discussed and just take it in their own hands and sort it out on track and barge the other guy out of the way. That can very quickly happen, and it’s already kind of happening,” Rosberg concluded.
The Long-Term Dynamic at Maranello
The reality is that Charles Leclerc has a contract with Ferrari which runs to beyond 2030, at which time Lewis Hamilton will have been long retired. Hamilton is in the last chance saloon with no opportunities at Red Bull, McLaren, or back at Mercedes—and so his shot at one more final championship will be done in red.
Lewis is preparing the ground for another bid to be named Ferrari number one. But Fred Vasseur is not listening, knowing the team’s future is intrinsically linked with their Monegasque driver—Charles Leclerc.
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
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