Speaking after his lap-two crash, Leclerc said “it was way too close into turn one” between himself and Hamilton. He added that he was unaware whether the pair had made contact.
“I was quite a lot on the inside kerb and tried to make the corner, which I didn’t do it tight enough,” said Leclerc.
“And then I only saw in the mirrors what happened, which is never what you want between two cars of the same team.”
However, Hamilton said: “I was ahead in turn two by the ethics, I was ahead. There was no ‘we’ in it.”
When asked if Ferrari fans should be worried the dynamics between himself and Leclerc may turn into a team-mate feud, he said: “Look, I don’t race dirty. I’ve always raced clean and fairly and always left space. So I don’t think they should be worried about me.
“I’ve come into the team and tried to be respectful of space and definitely not put the team in jeopardy. I stand by that and that’s all I can talk about.”
Team principal Frederic Vasseur said the incident between his two drivers was “not good”. But he also was keen to stress that every team on the grid has to manage intra-team tensions.
“Now, to see if we have a team order or whatever, I think that the comparison that I made was that last year, [Oscar] Piastri was leading McLaren at this stage of the season, and if McLaren put everything on Piastri, [Red Bull’s] Max Verstappen would have been champion.
“For sure, at one stage you have to make a decision, but I think it was too early to make a decision before Monza. Now we have time to discuss with the guys.”
Hamilton said Ferrari needed to look at how they communicate.
“If we continue to travel the same path, we get the same result,” he said. “And it’s like we keep getting the same result. We’ve got to change things because it’s not helping us to move forward. I think they’re receptive to it and we’ll take it offline.”
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