We Squashed It: Leclerc Owns Turn 2 as Ferrari Clears the Air After Monza

Four days after Leclerc forced Hamilton into the Monza gravel and then crashed out himself, the Ferrari pair sat down face to face in Madrid. The air is clear. Written rules of engagement are still nowhere to be found — and both men say that is fine, for now.

At Ferrari, noise is a weather system. It gathers in the paddock, fattens on social media, and breaks over Maranello with a force that other teams rarely feel. After Monza — where Charles Leclerc shoved Lewis Hamilton into the gravel at Turn 2 on lap one, then crashed out at the Parabolica a lap later — that storm had a name, a replay, and a week to grow. By Thursday in Madrid, both drivers wanted it gone. They got what they needed from each other. What they did not get, at least not yet, is the paperwork Hamilton asked for on Sunday night.

What happened at Monza

The anatomy is simple enough to fit on a timing screen. The Ferrari pair went side by side through the opening chicane. Hamilton, who had started fourth, was forced onto the gravel and dropped to tenth. He clawed back to sixth. Leclerc’s afternoon ended on lap two with a heavy crash that brought out the red flag. By the time the dust settled, Hamilton was calling for written rules of engagement — the kind he had lived under at Mercedes — and comparing Ferrari’s internal discipline unfavourably with his former team.

It was not an isolated flashpoint. Two races earlier at Zandvoort, the radio had already crackled with friction when Leclerc resisted a request to move aside for Hamilton. Monza simply made the tension visible: same team colours, same home crowd, one car in the grass.

“We sat face to face… and we squashed it”

On media day ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix’s debut at the new Madring, Hamilton was asked whether anything had been put in writing. His answer was blunt.

“There was not. I’m sure at some stage we’ll discuss how we can be better but we’ve not had a lot of time to turn around. You can’t change things in two days.” Lewis Hamilton · Madrid media day

What had changed, he insisted, was the personal file. There was no sidestepping, no mediated statement drafted by the press office. The conversation was private and direct.

“What’s great is that there was no shying away from having a discussion. We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it. We were just both open and honest, and we squashed it. We can move on. I think that one shows the maturity from him.” Lewis Hamilton

He framed the episode as part of a relationship built over time rather than a rupture. Frustrations, he said, are inevitable when two drivers of this calibre run so close on pace — and when both want to win as badly as the other.

“Of course there’s going to be frustrations… I’m sure there will be more times where we are close because we are very close on pace. We both want to win just as much as each other and we both want to do well for the team as well.” Lewis Hamilton

Leclerc’s admission

Leclerc did not hide behind ambiguity. After reviewing the footage, he told Hamilton — and then the media — that he had gone too far.

“Having the Turn 2 incident is not something we ever want to see again. And for that, reviewing the images, it’s pretty clear that I could have done a better job just slowing down the car and not putting Lewis then in a difficult situation. So this is something I can learn from, for sure.” Charles Leclerc · Madrid

He went further still, drawing a line that team-mates are supposed to respect even when the racing is hard.

“I have a lot of respect for Lewis, and I told him that in Turn 2 I didn’t behave the way I should have, and the way a team mate should.” Charles Leclerc

The Monza setting mattered. Ferrari’s home race is where internal friction becomes national theatre, and Leclerc knows the weather pattern better than most after years in red.

“I know we are driving for Ferrari and if there’s one race where you don’t want that to happen, it’s in Monza — and when these things happen at our home race, then it does a huge mess outside. However, looking at the race from outside, there’s been also some friction between other team-mates and the only thing we end up speaking of is Lewis and me, which I don’t think is quite right. But that doesn’t mean we did everything perfect.” Charles Leclerc

His practical point was sharper still: speak early, or the noise will write the story for you.

“It’s been quite a few years now that I’m in Ferrari — and I kind of know how it feels when everything around Ferrari is kind of on fire. And if you don’t speak between Lewis and I, then you can get caught up with this noise that there is around the team. It’s not that there are no reasons for that noise, but I think the intensity of the noise is a bit too crazy.” Charles Leclerc

No rules on paper — yet

Hamilton’s Sunday request for written rules of engagement was not answered with a document. It was answered with a conversation. That may be enough for Madrid. It may not be enough for the next time two scarlet cars arrive at the same apex with the same ambition.

Hamilton also returned to a broader operational theme: three consecutive weekends where Ferrari’s qualifying execution has failed to deliver the result the car’s pace suggested was available. The longer-term ask is cultural as much as procedural.

“It’s really just making sure we’re executing to make sure we get the best result for the team. Instead of us working against each other and finish fourth and fifth, maybe we can work together and get a podium and pull off more points. It’s a longer term process. It’s not something we can just change into this weekend.” Lewis Hamilton

Fit for Madring

Before the weekend’s unknown — Formula 1’s first look at the new Madring — Leclerc confirmed he is medically clear after the Monza crash. The impact left him briefly dizzy and with a tight neck for a couple of days; treatments followed, and by Madrid he said he was ready.

“I will be 100% fine… From Monday afternoon, I felt better. I had quite a few treatments for the neck, because that’s where most of the shock went, and I’m feeling good now.” Charles Leclerc

So the Monza file, at least between the two men in the cars, is closed. The championship arithmetic is not: Ferrari remain 122 points adrift of Mercedes in the constructors’, and Hamilton sits 76 behind Antonelli with a new, unforgiving street circuit waiting. Clearing the air was the easy part. Keeping two title-hungry team-mates pointed in the same direction — without a written rulebook — is the work still ahead.