Hamilton and Leclerc face crunch Ferrari summit after Mexico tension spills into Brazil

Ferrari arrived at the Brazilian Grand Prix facing an internal crisis that threatens to undermine the team’s recent resurgence, with team principal Fred Vasseur convening a summit with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Interlagos after their Mexico City flashpoint went unaddressed for days.

The two drivers made contact in the opening corners of the Mexico Grand Prix, compromising what could have been a strong result for the Scuderia and exposing a rift that neither driver nor team has managed to close since. Speaking to media at Interlagos, Hamilton reaffirmed the position he had taken on Sunday evening in Mexico City — offering no backtracking and no attempt to minimise the incident.

The delay in addressing the situation was partly circumstantial. Vasseur returned to Maranello after Mexico while Leclerc took time away with his family ahead of the birth of his child with his wife, Alexandra. The three-way meeting was therefore pushed back until Leclerc’s arrival in the Interlagos paddock.

According to those close to the situation, the meeting’s purpose is not to adjudicate who was at fault in Mexico but to establish a shared principle: when a Ferrari is in a position to win, the team’s collective interests must take precedence over any internal rivalry.

The tension carries particular significance given Ferrari’s recent form. After a long stretch of the season spent searching for performance from the SF-26, the team has finally found answers in recent rounds and is once again capable of fighting for victories. That makes internal harmony more important — and the current friction more costly.

The dynamic between Hamilton and Leclerc has been complicated from the outset. Hamilton spent the years following Nico Rosberg’s retirement at the end of 2016 at a Mercedes team built substantially around him, with his position as the undisputed number one rarely in question. Ferrari presented a fundamentally different environment: Leclerc not only knows the organisation deeply but has cultivated a strong relationship with the Scuderia over several seasons.

For a driver accustomed to being the clear reference point within his team, navigating a genuinely equal partnership — with a team-mate who has his own standing and loyalty within the garage — represents a significant adjustment. That underlying dynamic appears to have surfaced in Mexico, and resolving it before the final races of the season will be critical not only for the remainder of 2025 but, more pointedly, for how Ferrari structures its driver relationships heading into 2027.