MPH: Ferrari’s dilemma - both F1 drivers think they’re number one

Needing just a ninth-place finish, Kimi Antonelli was always going to clinch the world championship in Mexico. That he did better than that was not the big story of the weekend. It was merely confirmation of the big story of the season. The actual big story of Mexico was how Charles Leclerc’s lap 1 attack on team-mate Lewis Hamilton lost Ferrari a likely 1-2 finish and handed victory to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

There are several layers to this story, the most obvious being the continuing intensity of the fight between the Ferrari team-mates. After Monza, where they’d banged wheels into the first turn prior to Leclerc having a big accident at the end of the second lap trying to get back on terms, Hamilton had insisted that there needed to be a written policy laid out by the team defining the terms of how they raced each other. It was clearly directed at team boss Frederic Vasseur, but whatever was said in the post-Monza talks did not result in an official internal policy.

It’s very obvious how the motivation for each of them to beat the other is especially high. Hamilton’s status as a seven-time champion did not sit easily when, in his first year at the Scuderia, he was comprehensively outperformed by Leclerc. Charles, in turn, has needed to respond to how much better Hamilton can drive this car than last year’s. The margins between them are small enough for the advantage to have flip-flopped between races. Leclerc has been a marginally better qualifier but Hamilton is ahead on points. On performance, there is no clear number one. It’s still there to be fought over.

Leclerc can be incredibly ruthless in battle, no quarter given. He is also imbued with a raging competitive spirit that brings to mind Gilles Villeneuve’s never-say-die legendary days. That and a colossal talent. It’s no small thing to get the upper hand over him, even for a seven-time champion.

But Hamilton has used the weight of his status to push the team out of its comfort zone. It’s less of an employee-employer relationship with Ferrari than is the case with Leclerc. Having set pole in Mexico and won the first turn, he felt he had a right not to be challenged in a 50/50 move on the opening lap by his team-mate.

“We lost valuable points, and we, as a team, worked so hard,” he said. “We could have easily had a one-two today. Really, we had the pace to do so. We’re going into Turn 4 first and second… But when your team-mate 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. We’ve just got to figure it out, but something needs to change for sure.

“Before I joined this team, when I was at Mercedes, I watched the back and forth between Charles and Carlos [Sainz] several races, where they were battling so much that the person ahead just pulled away, and they had the pace to actually win. But it is one thing when that’s happening in fourth and fifth, as opposed to first and second, and you lose the win. That’s significant. The guy is 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. Either I win or none of us do,’ and it shouldn’t be that. It should be us getting that one-two. At Silverstone [where Leclerc won], I could have gone all kamikaze on him and taken him off and lost us the win.”

Leclerc evaded the impact his move had in losing the team the race but clearly didn’t feel that all the blame lay with him. “The penalty was deserved,” he admitted, “the thing with the penalty was a bit confusing because we both didn’t make Turn 4. I could also be unhappy with the way he pushed me to the outside of the track in Turn 1 but it’s racing and it’s the way it should be.”

Neither Hamilton nor Leclerc are the type of characters who could turn this into a poisonous relationship, such as Senna-Prost or Mansell-Piquet, but their continuing absolute refusal to back down to the other on track presents Vasseur with one hell of a challenge to resolve.