Al Capone is not a comparison a Ferrari driver wants on his record. Ralf Schumacher reached for it anyway.
Speaking on his Backstage Boxengasse podcast, the former Formula 1 driver took aim at Lewis Hamilton’s demand for “serious talks” at Maranello following the opening-lap clash with Charles Leclerc at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
“Then to speak like Al Capone and threaten that ‘we have big, big problems’ in my view, that’s just the dog walking its master,” Schumacher said, as reported by Crash.net.
He went further, accusing Hamilton of overreaching his role in the team. “He’s putting himself above the Ferrari brand. He’s acting more like a team boss than a driver,” Schumacher told the podcast.
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Schumacher wants Vasseur to step in
Schumacher directed part of the blame at Ferrari’s leadership, arguing that team principal Fred Vasseur needed to put both drivers in the same room and settle it. He called the two “stubborn” and warned that something urgently needed to change inside the Scuderia before the internal rivalry caused lasting damage.
The intervention adds a heavyweight external voice, and a surname that still carries weight at Maranello, to a fight that has steadily become the main story of Ferrari’s season.
The Mexico collision that started it
Hamilton and Leclerc tangled at Turn 4 on lap one of the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November 2026. Leclerc tried to pass his teammate around the outside, ran wide, and rejoined ahead after cutting across the grass. He was given a five-second penalty and eventually finished fourth. Hamilton took second behind race winner Max Verstappen.
Leclerc later accepted the sanction. “The penalty was deserved in a way,” he said, according to Formula1.com, while also brushing off suggestions that the incident needed a crisis meeting.
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Vasseur was less willing to let it slide. “It’s a matter of respect,” the Ferrari team principal said of the first-lap exchange, telling Formula1.com that his drivers were working for a group of roughly 2,000 people in the factory, not just themselves.
Hamilton’s own words
Hamilton’s post-race framing is what set Schumacher off. On the radio moments after the collision he complained of “big, big problems” and suggested closed-door conversations were needed. In the paddock afterwards he zeroed in on his teammate’s mindset.
“I think it’s a mentality thing. It’s like do or die. Like, either I win, or none of us do,” Hamilton said of Leclerc, in comments carried by Yahoo Sports.
Leclerc read the situation differently. “I don’t think it should be that much of a talking point,” he told reporters, per PlanetF1, insisting that two drivers fighting for a win would always leave little margin.
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The next round comes fast. The São Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos is on Sunday, 8 November 2026, with lights out at 2pm local time, per RacingNews365. It will also be Hamilton’s 400th Grand Prix start.
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