Ferrari’s strategy at the 2026 Dutch GP of Formula 1, held last Sunday (23), left Lewis Hamilton frustrated, but Charles Leclerc stated that he never received an order to let his teammate pass. According to the Monegasque, the team even instructed him to stay on track before asking again for his pit stop.
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Hamilton closed in on Leclerc halfway through the race with fresher tires, after a long stint started following the red flag caused by Max Verstappen’s crash. While the Briton was looking to advance, Leclerc was involved in a strategic battle with George Russell.
Hamilton finished fourth, very close to Russell, who was third, and assessed that the time lost behind Leclerc could have made a difference. The Monegasque driver, however, explained that the priority at that moment was to create a tire advantage over Mercedes:
“This is the kind of choice we need to discuss. For me, what I want to analyze is more the second stop, actually, when we were pressuring George to stop, and as soon as he stopped, yes, Lewis was coming, but two laps later I was called to pit,” Leclerc explained to the press. “For me, it was very important to create a tire delta compared to Mercedes to be able to come back strong at the end, and we didn’t exactly do that, so we need to understand why.”
Leclerc said he was surprised by the early stop. “I was very surprised to stop so early when we had done exactly what we wanted. With George stopping, it was time to do five or ten more laps to build a time delta with the tires and recover at the end on George.”
The team’s communication changed quickly: Leclerc was ordered to stop, then instructed to stay on track at the end of the lap, and on the next pass, he was called again to the pits: “Two laps later, they told me to stop, which I did, I think three laps later. There wasn’t much debate. They asked me to stop, and then, at the end of the lap, they asked me to stay on track, which I did, and on the next lap, they asked me to stop.”
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Leclerc also denied receiving any message related to Hamilton. “I didn’t receive any message about [letting Hamilton pass]. In the end, I was focused on my pace and trying to do the best possible for my race. I had a very good first stint. I had to stop early to try the undercut on the guys ahead, and that’s a bit of the team game.”
The Monegasque acknowledged that Hamilton had a strong pace in the second stint and that strategic decisions can generate frustration within the team. “Sometimes you have to take a bit of a risk, especially in the first stint for that, and Lewis was very strong in the second stint, but that’s how things are. So I think sometimes I’ll get frustrated. Sometimes Lewis will get frustrated, but that’s just how it is.”
Leclerc also stated that he was not disappointed with the situation and attributed part of the result to the timing of the virtual safety car: “It’s a position for the team. It doesn’t change anything, so it’s not that I’m disappointed or feeling any way about it; it just seemed that luck wasn’t really on our side, with the timing of the virtual safety car not being ideal for us.”
“But at the same time, that’s how things are. I felt that before the break, luck was a bit on my side for two or three races, and sometimes you see the other side of the coin, which happened [at the Dutch GP],” the driver concluded.
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