The confrontation between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the Italian GP raised questions about Ferrari’s preparation to handle a direct battle between its drivers. For Will Buxton, former Formula 1 commentator, the team should have defined before the race how the two should act in situations like the one that occurred in Monza.
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Hamilton and Leclerc started together on the second row and fought for third position at the first chicane. The Brit dived inside at the first right-hand corner but ended up being pushed onto the gravel by Leclerc on the exit of the next corner. The off-track excursion caused Hamilton to lose six positions and drop to 10th, although he recovered to sixth place. Leclerc, in turn, crashed at the end of the second lap, worsening Ferrari’s Sunday.
“You have to hope the drivers are smart when it gets to this point,” Buxton said on the Up to Speed podcast. “I didn’t see much on the first lap, like between Charles and Lewis. Charles was a bit cheeky. If the guy on the outside is cutting to the apex, and the guy on the inside is pushing towards the exit curb, that’s not racing. That’s just being a jerk! I’ve never been a fan of that.”
The former F1TV presenter also criticized team principal Fred Vasseur and other Ferrari members for the lack of planning before the race, especially after recent events in Zandvoort and discussions about team orders. “I think the later admission that they hadn’t discussed this before the race, after what we saw in Zandvoort and the team orders,” Buxton said.
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“You don’t discuss, going into the biggest race of the year, how your drivers will race each other and how they will handle each other if they find themselves side by side? I find that strange. And then that connects to Lewis’s complaints and Lewis’s words that they are still not ready to fight for a championship, and that they need to get their heads in the game and think about this kind of thing.”
Buxton continued: “Are they focused? Do they have the ability to make the decisive decision when they absolutely need to make the decisive decision? Not even discussing team orders and how you will race each other in Monza, when you have that right at the center of your concerns after recent races, I don’t understand how that wasn’t even a conversation.”
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