Leclerc vows no repeat of Ferrari infighting as Hamilton rivalry simmers at COTA

Charles Leclerc has pledged there will be no repeat of the intra-team friction that has cost Ferrari points this season, speaking after he and Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth and fifth at the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

The two Ferrari drivers have repeatedly failed to work in concert when their strategies diverge on track, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, where Leclerc pushed Hamilton into the gravel trap on the opening lap. That incident prompted team principal Frédéric Vasseur to hold private talks with both drivers in an attempt to clear the air.

Despite that intervention, Leclerc told media after qualifying that no specific instructions had been issued for how the pair should handle COTA’s notorious Turn 1 — a sharp left at the top of a hill that has historically produced collisions as the field compresses at the start. Last year, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris tangled there during the sprint race, gifting Max Verstappen an uncontested run to victory.

“No, we know what the line is not to cross,” Leclerc said. “And again I think we’ve got some occasions throughout the year where I’ve crossed it, Lewis has crossed it, and we don’t want to see that — so this is clear.”

Starting fourth and fifth means the Ferrari drivers are not directly alongside each other on the grid, but they remain close enough to become entangled as the field squeezes into Turn 1. The structural similarities between the Monza incident and last year’s McLaren collision at the same corner are hard to ignore: both involved a compressed field funnelling toward a single racing line, and a driver executing an assertive cut-back move without fully accounting for the car alongside.

At Monza, the damage was limited — both Ferraris continued — but the episode illustrated a recurring pattern in Ferrari’s mid-season: strong practice pace that fails to convert in qualifying, compounded by on-track friction between its own drivers that erodes the points tally further.

With the constructors’ championship still in play, Ferrari can ill afford another self-inflicted setback. Leclerc’s words suggest awareness of that reality, even if the team has stopped short of imposing formal rules of engagement.