Charles Leclerc has “no bad feelings” towards Lewis Hamilton after team orders saga

Charles Leclerc has called on Ferrari to do “better” after a messy race at the F1 Miami Grand Prix.

Ferrari struggled for pace at the Miami International Autodrome as Leclerc finished seventh, while Lewis Hamilton finished one place behind in eighth.

It wasn’t a straightforward race for Ferrari as they were engulfed in a team orders saga.

At the time, Hamilton was running on medium tyres and looked quicker than Leclerc, who was on the hards.

Ferrari waited several laps before deciding to impose team orders on Leclerc.

By the time Leclerc moved over, Hamilton’s tyres were past their best.

This meant that Leclerc was now being held up by his teammate, costing both drivers more time in their pursuit of Kimi Antonelli.

The saga led to a sassy team radio message from Hamilton, who asked race engineer Riccardo Adami whether he should also let Carlos Sainz through in the closing laps.

Speaking after the race in Miami, where Crash.net are in the paddock, Leclerc discussed the team orders fiasco.

“Most of the time I say something, today I don’t think I’ll say anything,” Leclerc said.

“I think the story is going to be big enough already. We need to do better, that’s for sure. Today was not ideal and was far from maximising our potential, but we’ve got to regroup as a team and be better.”

Leclerc felt that team orders should have been discussed more before moving over for Hamilton on Lap 39.

“I think we should have discussed a little bit more before doing the swap, because you’re trying to go to the end with those tyres,” Leclerc explained.

“I’m trying to do a good job with my tyres and then everything is tricky. I did not expect Carlos to be so close. All of this made the situation a bit trickier, but I think there’s plenty for us to look at. As I said, we need to do a step and we need to be robust enough that whenever we find ourselves in those situations, we do better.”

“No bad feelings with Lewis”

Leclerc was keen to make clear that he had no issue with Hamilton and his approach.

Leclerc conceded that he would have done the same as Hamilton in wanting to push - and get past - if he was in that position. 

“Not really, because I knew Lewis was on a medium, so if anything, he would struggle a bit more to go to the end than me, so we had to take care of tyres,” Leclerc added.

“But I understand as well that he wanted to try and do something different, so I appreciate that. I would have done the same thing as if I was him and trying to be a bit more aggressive with the medium tyres. There’s no bad feelings with Lewis, not at all.

“I understand that he wants to try and optimise as much as I want to try and optimise the car potential. The car potential is just this, which is frustrating.”

Leclerc confirmed he’s not had the chance to speak to Hamilton after the race.