Vasseur tells Hamilton and Leclerc Ferrari comes first after Mexico clash cost team a win

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has delivered a direct warning to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc following their damaging first-lap clash at the Mexican Grand Prix, telling both drivers that the team and its brand must always take priority over personal rivalries.

The two Ferrari drivers collided while fighting for the lead in Mexico City, with both going off track. Hamilton lost a position to Max Verstappen in the chaos, while Leclerc received a penalty and also surrendered the lead to the Red Bull driver. Verstappen went on to win, with Hamilton second and Leclerc fourth — a result Vasseur described as a collective failure given the team had been running first and second.

Vasseur held the joint meeting with both drivers on Thursday evening in São Paulo ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, and was unambiguous about the message delivered. “The guidelines are always the same. They are two competitors with a fighting spirit for sure, but they need to have respect for each other,” Vasseur told reporters. “But mainly and firstly, they need to respect the brand, the team, the people working at home, the people working on track.”

Hamilton had been particularly aggrieved after Mexico, lobbying stewards for a harsher penalty against Leclerc and demanding formal talks about how hard his team-mate was racing him. The seven-time world champion suggested Leclerc was competing more aggressively against him than against other drivers on the grid.

Vasseur pushed back on that characterisation, pointing to Leclerc’s bold overtake on Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin as evidence that the Monégasque driver races everyone hard. “If you have a look at what Charles did in Austin in the first sector, everybody said that it was magic,” Vasseur said. “The line is fine between the two. But he didn’t crash into the other car.”

The Ferrari chief was candid about the cost of the Mexico incident, which denied the team what could have been a third race victory of the season. “We failed collectively because we were one and two and we didn’t win the race at the end,” he said. “The conclusion of the meeting yesterday evening was clear — it was a clear reminder that Ferrari is coming first, for the brand, for the employees, for the Tifosi, and this we have to keep in mind.”

With the constructors’ championship still in play, the timing of the internal dispute adds pressure to a team already navigating the challenge of managing two high-profile and fiercely competitive drivers in their first season together.