Ferrari’s problem is not how its drivers are racing each other. It is that neither of them accepts there is a hierarchy to break. That is the reading from Motor Sport Magazine’s Mark Hughes, writing from the ruins of Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, where a first-lap collision between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc handed Max Verstappen a win Ferrari had looked set to control.

Hamilton started from pole. Leclerc started third. The long run to Turn 1 handed Leclerc the slipstream, and he attacked around the outside; by Turn 4 both drivers were off the track and Leclerc had completed the pass. Stewards gave him a five-second penalty for overtaking off the circuit. Verstappen was through moments later and never looked back.

Ferrari finished second and fourth. Hamilton did not hide where he placed the blame.

Hamilton targets a mentality, not an age

He told reporters that his teammate approaches intra-team battles with a mindset he described as “do or die”, and said age could not be the excuse, Leclerc, he argued, is too experienced for that to explain the approach. It was a mentality thing, Hamilton said, not a question of youth.

Read also: Novak Djokovic called the GOAT twice but his reaction was not what reporters expected

He contrasted Sunday’s move with Silverstone earlier in the season, where he said he could have gone “all kamikaze” on Leclerc and taken him out of the race, but did not. The team got its one-two that day. Ferrari, Hamilton told reporters, now needs to sit down.

“We have to have some serious talks behind the scenes for sure.”

There is nothing written down for the drivers to work from. Hamilton pointed out that Ferrari does not operate any rules of engagement between its two drivers, and said he did not know whether a change would land with Leclerc.

Leclerc accepts the penalty, not the blame

Leclerc did not challenge the sanction, but he pushed back on the premise that Mexico was his fault alone. He accepted the penalty was deserved and told Sky Sports he saw a gap on the opening lap and took it as any driver fighting for a win would.

Read also: Füllkrug back, 17-year-old Mohya in: Klopp picks 24 to lift Germany off third place

“I could also be unhappy with the way he pushed me to the outside of the track in Turn 1 but it’s racing and it’s the way it should be,” he said.

On the run-off at Turn 4, he described it as a shared error: both drivers missed the apex, and neither of them made contact.

Vasseur asks his drivers for respect

Team principal Fred Vasseur went public with his frustration. He told reporters the issue was not the racing itself but what sat behind it.

“I think it’s just a matter of respect, the respect for the brand, for the sponsor, for the team, for the 2,000 people working at home like hell,” Vasseur said.

Read also: Barcelona are back for Bergvall, but Tottenham have set the price

Hughes’ argument is that the structural problem will not change until the drivers do. Ferrari has no clear number one because neither has earned one. In the drivers’ standings after Mexico, Hamilton is third on 259 points and Leclerc fifth on 245, with Verstappen between them on 261 and George Russell on 250. Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli has already wrapped up the 2026 title on 380, so the only placings still worth fighting for are the minor ones, and Leclerc is close enough to keep contesting Hamilton’s.

The Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos runs from 6 to 8 November.

Read also: Rosenior explains his Chelsea exit and what happend