Charles Leclerc has been the faster Ferrari for much of the second half of the season, and Ralf Schumacher thinks the team-mate debate at Maranello should start and end there.
Speaking on Sky Deutschland, the former Williams and Toyota driver told Lewis Hamilton to settle the argument with a stopwatch, not a job title.
“Always be in front! Drive a second, half a second faster than Charles. Win every race or be ahead of him. It’s that simple,” Schumacher said, in comments relayed in English by F1-Fansite.
His verdict on the underlying problem was harsher.
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“The problem is, he’s simply not fast enough compared to Charles Leclerc.”
Schumacher argued that if Hamilton were decisively quicker than Leclerc, in the way his late brother Michael was alongside his own Ferrari team-mates two decades ago, the debate inside the team would never have started.
The numbers behind the verdict
After the Mexico City Grand Prix, Hamilton sits fourth on 261 points, one behind George Russell and twelve clear of Leclerc on 249, in the official 2026 standings.
Both are out of the title fight. Kimi Antonelli clinched the world championship as the youngest ever F1 champion on 1 November, with three rounds still to run.
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Contact at turn four in Mexico City
The row broke into the open at the Mexico City Grand Prix. Hamilton started on pole and Leclerc went around the outside at turn four, where both ran wide and Leclerc held the lead by cutting across the grass rather than yielding the position back. Max Verstappen slipped through and went on to win, while Leclerc, handed a five-second penalty for the move, dropped to fourth.
Hamilton took the flag in second.
Interlagos made it worse
A week later in São Paulo, Hamilton overrode a late pit call as rain returned to Interlagos and spun on his way to the pits. He finished ninth, one lap down on race winner Lando Norris.
He took responsibility afterwards.
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“If I’d have known that I would have come in. And ultimately, that’s on me. Sorry for the team, for that,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.
Hamilton joined Ferrari for 2025 chasing a record eighth world title and failed to stand on a podium all year. The 2026 car has been kinder, but Leclerc, in his seventh full season at the Scuderia, has been the quicker of the two Ferraris more often than not since the summer.
The final stretch of the season starts at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on 21 November, with Qatar on 29 November and Abu Dhabi on 6 December to follow.
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