Appointing Hamilton as the number one driver is the last resort for Ferrari and Vasseur

After the Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was extremely critical of Ferrari. First of all, Hamilton was not pleased with teammate Charles Leclerc, who, in Lewis’s view, clearly overstepped the mark with his overtaking move into the first chicane. Hamilton placed the blame for the incident squarely on Leclerc.

But it didn’t stop there. According to the seven-time world champion, the incident stemmed from a larger, underlying problem at Ferrari. There is supposedly no clarity from the top about how teammates should race each other, resulting in the two accumulating far too many “experiences” on track.

By the end of the Italian GP, Hamilton’s patience had run out. While Leclerc doesn’t understand where these stories come from, Hamilton knows better. He raced for Mercedes, where everything between teammates is tightly and clearly structured. The chaos reigning at Ferrari is, to him, incomprehensible and the reason for the Italian team’s failures.

The problem begins with Ferrari’s decision to pair Charles Leclerc with Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari is notorious for a clear number 1 and number 2 hierarchy within the team, but by bringing in Hamilton, they broke that tradition. Hamilton and Leclerc are extremely close in both qualifying and races, which demands something different from Ferrari.

Whether it was Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, or Sebastian Vettel, all three had the clear status of number 1 within the team. The teammate simply had to accept the role of second fiddle—and often did so naturally due to pace. Ferrari therefore rarely needed to establish detailed rules governing how its drivers should race one another.

With both Hamilton and Leclerc in one team, however, you must establish clarity within the team. What is allowed and what isn’t? When do you let your teammate through, and when does the team step in? These matters need to be agreed beforehand rather than decided in the heat of a race.

Say what you will about McLaren, but it hasn’t led to a feud between their two drivers in recent years. Mercedes has also handled driver pairings that are very close for years. Simply by setting rules between the drivers and stepping in from management when necessary.

Ferrari lacks both. There are no rules or prior agreements, and during the race they either don’t intervene or do so far too late. Frédéric Vasseur keeps a low profile, but meanwhile things go off the rails on track. Time after time, duels between Hamilton and Leclerc mean they score fewer points than they could have. Operational perfection is a distant dream.

Perhaps the most concerning are the words of team boss Vasseur. He doesn’t seem to feel the urgency to act on Hamilton’s comments. In his view, there has been no need so far to appoint a number 1 or to set rules between the drivers. Apparently, intervention hasn’t been necessary either.

Ferrari may be helped by yet another blunder from Leclerc, who—with yet another crash of his own making—has once again shot himself in the foot. This will likely increase the internal calls to give Hamilton preferential status. Still, it’s far too late for a serious title push.

Having two evenly matched drivers will always create the risk of tension, but Ferrari’s rivals have shown that such a partnership can still succeed. However, that requires a clear structure and a firm hand from above to keep two emotional drivers in check. Ferrari lacks both the structure and the firm hand, and it’s very doubtful whether that will ever come under Vasseur, who has now been at the helm for nearly four years.

For now, appointing Hamilton as the number 1 is a solution; in the long term, you must work on structure and toughness—or simply put a clear second driver alongside your leader. Leclerc has once again proven he is unsuitable as the leader of a top F1 team.