Charles Leclerc airs bitter frustration at 'over-analysed' Lewis Hamilton fights

Charles Leclerc has hit out at the level of scrutiny surrounding his wheel-to-wheel battles with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton this F1 season.

Leclerc and Hamilton recently clashed at the opening chicane of the Italian Grand Prix, resulting in the Monégasque running the seven-time F1 champion wide at Turn 2 and relegating him to 10th place before Hamilton recovered to finish sixth. Leclerc failed to see the chequered flag following an early high-speed crash out of the Parabolioca.

The incident reignited the debate over whether Ferrari needs clearer rules of engagement between its two drivers, with pundits pointing to the clash as evidence of internal friction. Leclerc has since taken personal responsibility for the Turn 2 incident, but he believes the fallout has been blown out of proportion.

Asked whether he was happy with the way he and Hamilton race each other, Leclerc said he had no issue with the competitive edge between them.

"Yes, I am," said Leclerc, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365. "Of course, there have been moments where I went too far, where Lewis went too far. But I think the key in that is to discuss.

"I've been with Ferrari now since 2019, and I know how everything we do is over-analysed, over-discussed, and very often the conclusions that are taken after those kinds of fights are the wrong ones.

"We only need to speak with Lewis to understand that we've been doing that all our lives. We both want to win; there's competition, but we also want to win as a team and to make Ferrari come out on top eventually. That is the priority.

"I enjoy fighting with Lewis, and that's what is exciting in Formula 1, to be fighting against the best, and Lewis is definitely up there, so for me it's a big challenge, but I'm enjoying it."

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Leclerc - we don't need written rules

Pressed on whether the rules of engagement between the two Ferrari drivers were clear, Leclerc pointed to Monza as a one-off rather than a symptom of a wider problem.

"Sure, I mean Turn 2 in Monza is something that I have said repeatedly is not something that we want to see ever happen again," he said. "It was going too far on my side.

"But I've been through it already, and it's pretty clear we don't necessarily have to write [down] those things for it. It's clear enough.

"But again, I feel like it's being over-discussed and over-analysed when it's about the red cars, and that's not really fair.

"In Monza, if you look at the four top teams, three of them had fights like this with a car finishing in the grass, and at the end of the day, the only thing we are still speaking about now is the red cars, which I don't think is fair."