Sao Paulo GP: Do Ferrari need to impose repercussions after latest Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc incident?

Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins has suggested Ferrari should introduce repercussions rule to the team after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s contentious incident in Mexico.

Hamilton called for “serious talks” after Leclerc tried to overtake him at Turn 4 on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, which allowed Max Verstappen to take advantage of the squabble to go on and win the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Both Hamilton and Leclerc have held discussions with Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but the content of those conversations will not be revealed until the drivers face the media on Thursday in Brazil.

Former F1 strategist and Sky Sports F1‘s Collins says the incident is not a huge problem for Ferrari but they must come up with a plan going forward after Hamilton confirmed there are no rules of engagement at the Scuderia when it comes to racing your team-mate.

“It’s something that if they sit down together, talk it through, come to some sort of mutual agreement, there’s some sort of penalty for the drivers if they don’t stick to it,” she said on Sky Sports’ The F1 Show podcast.

“I think it can’t just be like a gentleman’s agreement that we’re going to discuss in the office and there are no repercussions. There needs to be some sort of repercussion.

“I think we’ve seen that a little bit with McLaren where they had this sort of rules of engagement. And then we think the repercussion is if they go against the rules of engagement, they lose a qualifying preference the next week. So that’s a penalty, but it’s not like really harsh, so something like that, they need to be having those discussions.

“It happens! It’s not the first time that two team-mates have taken each other off track and one of the rules in F1 is if it’s happened before it will happen again.”

Team principal Vasseur has suggested not enough respect was given in his drivers’ battle but did not blame either Hamilton or Leclerc.

Hamilton’s former team-mate and 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg believes Vasseur needs to make clear “what is acceptable and what’s not”.

“Fred Vasseur, he needs to start to act. Once again, as Lewis said before the race, there was no discussion, like clear racing guidelines between the two. It needs to happen, otherwise it’s going to keep going like this,” he said.

“It gets really bad when the drivers take it in their own hands and disregard whatever has been discussed and just take it in their own hands and sort it out on track and barge the other guy out the way. That can very quickly happen and it’s already kind of happening.”

Does Leclerc need to change his approach?

Since becoming Ferrari team-mates at the start of 2025, Hamilton and Leclerc have often found themselves fighting together, particularly this year as their pace has been evenly matched.

They had a race-long battle earlier this season at the Chinese Grand Prix, which saw them make brief tyre to tyre contact, but there was little negative reaction, with Hamilton calling it “the best racing I’ve ever experienced in Formula 1”.

A flashpoint came at Ferrari’s home race in Monza in September though as Hamilton and Leclerc went side by side into the first chicane, which saw Hamilton go through the gravel on the exit as Leclerc left little room to his outside.

Hamilton called for “clearer rules of engagement” which he had at Mercedes and Leclerc admitted at the next race that “I didn’t behave the way I should have”.

The Mexico battle is the biggest incident so far as it almost certainly cost Ferrari a win, or even a one-two, and Sky Sports F1‘s Karun Chandhok believes Leclerc is the driver who needs a different approach against Hamilton.

“What perhaps people need to understand is when the adrenaline is pumping when you’re in a Grand Prix car, when you’re in a race or any form of race, the adrenaline is pumping so hard, especially on the opening lap,” he said.

“Your heart rate is in the 170s and at that point you’re sometimes going on your sort of natural racer’s instincts, and you’re not thinking perhaps as clearly as you should be doing. I think both things are true.

“One is Charles probably needs to think about how he can have a calmer approach to racing his team-mate. I think that’s true. I also think it’s maybe not natural to him… It’s not coming naturally to him to back off a bit and treat his team-mate a bit differently to other cars.

“Do the team have to get involved? Yes, I think maybe, because it’s not coming naturally, they’re going to have to force him into thinking that way a bit more.”

Sky Sports F1‘s Martin Brundle ultimately believes the Ferrari drivers will inevitably have further flashpoints, such is the mentality of racing drivers.

“They’re hard-wired racing drivers. It’s a curious business we have, where you perform as an individual in a team environment,” he said.

“You’re measured as an individual, you’re rewarded as an individual, but when the adrenaline is up and the chance of a gap is there, as the great Ayrton Senna used to say: ‘If you don’t go for a gap, you’re no longer a racing driver’.

“Charles has had some frustrations this year, and it doesn’t look pretty for the team like when Lando [Norris] ran into Oscar Piastri in Singapore in the Sprint race. It doesn’t look pretty for the team and you’ve let 1,500 people down in your team. That’s just the car side, without the power unit side.

“You’re only the final link in the chain of the team but you’re the one out there that’s got to deliver in the heat of the moment. Ferrari will have to manage that somehow.

“They will sit down and we will go to Brazil and they will say ‘yes we sat down, we understood it all, we will move forward and it won’t happen again’ but in reality we know it will.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Sao Paulo GP Schedule

Thursday November 5
5pm: Drivers’ Press Conference
8pm: Paddock Uncut

Friday November 6
3pm: Sao Paulo Grand Prix Practice One (session starts at 3.30pm)*
5.30pm: Team Bosses’ Press Conference
6.45pm: Sao Paulo Grand Prix Practice Two (session starts at 7pm)
8.15pm: The F1 Show

Saturday November 7
2.15pm: Sao Paulo Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 2.30pm)*
5pm: Sao Paulo Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
6pm: SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
8pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday November 8
3.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Sao Paulo GP build-up
5pm: THE SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX*
7pm: Chequered Flag: Sao Paulo City GP reaction
8pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 heads to Brazil for the final leg of the triple header with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW

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