Sainz urges Leclerc and Hamilton to resolve Monza clash the way Ferrari team-mates always did

Carlos Sainz has called on Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to settle their Monza dispute privately, insisting that clashes between competitive Ferrari team-mates are an occupational hazard — and one he knows well from his own four seasons alongside Leclerc.

Speaking in Madrid on Thursday, the Williams driver reflected on how he and Leclerc handled their own on-track friction between 2021 and 2024, a period in which the pair were closely matched — Sainz accumulating 900.5 points to Leclerc’s 1,029 — and occasionally came to blows.

“Me with Charles, always twice, two or three times a year, we always had a bit of a discussion or an argument, but after the race or the morning after we would call each other and sort it out,” Sainz said. “It’s always the same case and I don’t know the way it’s being handled right now, but when I was there at Ferrari with Charles, we would always sort it out among each other and we would get on with it.”

The incident that prompted his comments came at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Leclerc made contact with Hamilton at the race start, forcing the seven-time world champion into the gravel. Leclerc retained third place while Hamilton dropped to tenth after crashing into the Parabolica barriers on lap two.

The two drivers offered sharply contrasting accounts afterwards. Leclerc acknowledged shared responsibility, saying “we went too far”, but Hamilton flatly rejected that framing. “I was ahead in Turn 2, by the apex I was ahead — there was no ‘we’ in it,” Hamilton said at Monza. “I don’t race dirty. I’ve always raced clean and fairly and always left space. I’ve come into the team and tried to be respectful of space and definitely not put the team in jeopardy.”

Sainz, who was replaced at Ferrari by Hamilton ahead of the 2025 season, was careful not to take sides. “It’s none of my business,” he said, “but I can tell you that when you have two competitive team-mates, these kind of situations are always going to happen.”

He pointed to the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix as an example of how similar tensions played out during his own time at the Scuderia, when he accused Leclerc of “complaining too much” after making contact with him while overtaking in Barcelona — only for the pair to resolve the matter quietly in the days that followed.

With Ferrari still in contention for both championships, how Hamilton and Leclerc manage their relationship in the coming rounds could prove as consequential as anything that happens on track.