‘Just being an a***hole!’ Will Buxton drops brutal verdict on Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc Monza F1 clash

Former F1TV presenter Will Buxton has weighed in on the clash between Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on the opening lap of Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix. 

After lining up together on the second row of the grid for Ferrari’s home race at Monza, Hamilton and Leclerc made contact at the first chicane as they battled over third place. 

Hamilton aggressively dived down the inside of Leclerc into the opening right-hander, but was shoved out wide onto the gravel by his team-mate as the seven-time world champion tried to hold on to the outside line at the exit of the left-hander. 

The off resulted in Hamilton losing six places and dropping to 10th. He would go on to recover to sixth place,  while Leclerc crashed out at the end of the second lap, compounding a hugely disappointing day for Ferrari. 

“You've got to expect the drivers to be smart when it comes to it,” Buxton said on the Up to Speed podcast. “I didn't see too much in the opening lap, like between Charles and Lewis. Charles was a bit naughty. 

“If the guy on the outside is cutting in on the apex, and if the guy on the inside is pushing out towards the exit curb, that's not racing. That's just being an a***hole! I’ve never been a fan of that.”

Buxton also pointed the finger at senior Ferrari figures including team principal Fred Vasseur for the poor management of the situation and questioned why the topic was not discussed pre-race. 

“I think the admission afterwards that they hadn't discussed it before the race in the aftermath of what we saw at Zandvoort and team orders,” Buxton said. 

“You don't you don't discuss going into the biggest race of the year, how your drivers are going to race one another and how they're going to deal with one another if they find themselves side by side? Find that odd. 

"Then that, it does pull into Lewis's gripes and Lewis's words that they're not ready to fight for a championship yet, and they need to get their head in the game and think about these kinds of things.”

Buxton continued: “Do they have their head in the game? Do they have the wherewithal to make the killer decision when they absolutely have to make the killer decision? 

"To not even discuss team orders and how you're going to race each other at Monza when you've got that as very front and centre in your mind after recent races, I don't understand how that wasn't even a conversation.”