Leclerc downplays Hamilton team-orders miss in Baku — but warns it can’t happen when the stakes rise
Ferrari’s Sunday in Baku ended not with fireworks but with a shrug. Charles Leclerc said he wasn’t fussed that Lewis Hamilton didn’t complete a late position swap at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix — because they were fighting over P8 and P9. Still, he slipped in a gentle reminder: if Ferrari find themselves in “sexier positions” later this year, there can’t be any confusion.
Ferrari rolled the dice in the closing laps, moving Hamilton ahead of Leclerc on fresher tyres to have a crack at a three-car scrap up the road involving Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris for P5. The attack didn’t stick. The call then came for Hamilton to hand the place back to Leclerc before the line.
Hamilton lifted on the run to the flag, moved off the racing line and checked his mirrors after being told to give it back. He still crossed the line four-tenths ahead of Leclerc.
Leclerc was matter-of-fact afterwards. An eighth or ninth on a bruising weekend? Not worth a row.
“It was very clear,” he said of the instruction, before adding that he didn’t care for the outcome over those positions. “There are rules that we know we’ve got to work with and today, maybe those rules were not respected. But P8/P9… that’s small.”
The subtext was obvious enough: do this when it’s for a podium or a win, and it’s a very different conversation. “Going forward, obviously, if we are fighting for sexier positions — which I hope will be the case — then I hope that we will work in a different way.”
Ferrari’s bigger problem in Baku was pace, not politics. Leclerc’s qualifying accident in Q3 left him out of sequence, Hamilton made an unexpected exit in Q2, and the SF-25 never looked at ease in the cool, tricky conditions. An eighth and ninth was a limp return from a car and driver pairing that, on paper, should be mixing it further up.
Leclerc didn’t pretend otherwise. The team’s focus, he insisted, had to be on why the car fell out of its window as track temperatures dropped and others — notably Mercedes and Williams — switched on.
“I think our car is struggling quite a bit whenever it’s cold,” he said. “Mercedes were very strong, and Williams too. We are stronger in hot conditions, which I hope Singapore will give us.”
That’s the lifeline Ferrari are eyeing as the calendar moves to Marina Bay after a breather. Singapore traditionally punishes a car that can’t generate and hold tyre temperature and rewards traction, confidence on the brakes and downforce. If Ferrari’s warm-weather balance really is a strength, it should show there.
As for the team-orders flashpoint, Ferrari won’t be the first or last to stumble over a late switch. The nuance is always ugly: drivers backing off into traffic, timing lines, delta management, and the very human instinct not to overdo it and throw away both cars’ finishes. Hamilton did slow and peel off-line; the stopwatch says it wasn’t enough. That will make for a neat debrief clip in Maranello, but it’s not a scandal.
What will matter is whether this was a one-off misfire in a low-stakes scenario — or a sign the comms loop between the pit wall and two fiercely competitive teammates still needs tightening now that both are Ferrari drivers in 2025. That relationship, by the way, is the kind you want operating on muscle memory when the podiums start calling.
Leclerc’s tone suggested perspective rather than friction. Hamilton’s too, by his actions if not his final position on the timing screen. If Ferrari find the form they need in the heat of Singapore, no one in red will care about a half-second’s worth of awkwardness in Baku.
The bigger test is coming. And that’s exactly where Ferrari want the spotlight to be.
