Ferrari endured a torrid afternoon at the Miami Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both left fuming at their team’s indecisive in-race management
Charles Leclerc has ‘no bad feelings’ towards Lewis Hamilton following a tumultuous Miami Grand Prix, which involved some questionable decisions from team management.
Chaos ensued in the latter part of the race when both Ferrari drivers faced issues due to a lack of decisive strategy calls. As Hamilton trailed closely behind his team-mate on medium tyres compared to Leclerc’s hard compound, and with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli ahead by a margin, the tension was palpable.
Hamilton pushed for a position swap in an effort to chase down Antonelli, but grew frustrated by Ferrari’s hesitancy. When the team finally made the switch, Hamilton’s tyres had deteriorated from the heat, impeding his chance to overtake before crossing the finish line.
Consequently, Ferrari had to revert their drivers back to their original positions, pushing Leclerc back to 7th place. Talking to Sky Sports F1 after the event, Leclerc said: “It is a difficult situation.
“I unfortunately will go for the boring answer, and I’m not going to comment too much here. It’s obvious today was not the way we want to manage a race.
“We will discuss internally in order to make better decisions. There is no bad feelings for Lewis – absolutely not.
“It’s just that as a team, we need to do better, and today was proof of that. For the rest, I don’t want to speak more into the details,” reports the Express.
Meanwhile, Hamilton added: “I lost a lot of time behind Charles, and in that moment for sure I was like ‘Come on, let’s make a decision real quick – let’s not waste time’. And I’m sure people didn’t like certain comments, but you’ve got to understand that it’s frustrating.
“People say way worse things than I say, so it was more sarcastic than anything. I’m not frustrated now.
“We’ll work internally, we’ll have discussions, and we’ll keep pushing.” As Ferrari gears up for their home race in Imola, team principal Frederic Vasseur is likely feeling the pressure, not just from on-track spats but also due to the SF-25’s disappointing lack of speed.
The iconic Maranello team found themselves in an unexpected tussle with Williams at the Miami GP and currently sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, trailing McLaren by more than 150 points.
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