Another team order
Lewis Hamilton’s debut season at Ferrari risks being remembered above all for the team orders imposed on the seven-time world champion, which are becoming a recurring theme. After what happened earlier in the season in China and the rather chaotic position management seen in Miami, on Sunday at the Spanish GP the most successful driver in Formula 1 history again had to move aside to avoid compromising the race of his teammate Charles Leclerc, who was clearly faster.
In Barcelona, it all happened in the very early part of the race, after a brilliant start from Charles Leclerc immediately placed the Monegasque driver behind the other SF-25. Already on lap seven, thanks to fresher soft tyres, car #16 got into Lewis Hamilton’s slipstream, attempting a first overtake that was fended off by the teammate. The same situation repeated over the next two laps, with Charles Leclerc trying to make a move into turn 1 and Lewis Hamilton defending his position—not aggressively, but firmly.
Charles Leclerc asks for room
At this point, Charles Leclerc—who had already told the team via radio that he was “losing time” behind his teammate—clearly expressed his thoughts, not-so-subtly ‘suggesting’ that the team issue a team order to give him clear air: “Guys, I sacrificed my qualifying to be fast in the race, not so that we end up holding each other up. So, yeah. You decide how much quicker I can go; I can only tell you that if I get clean air. Right now, I’m stuck.”
Apparently, his words were convincing enough, as moments later Charles Leclerc’s race engineer Bryan Bozzi gave the green light for the position swap, which promptly took place at turn 1. Letting Charles Leclerc go was the right choice by the Maranello team: in the end, also helped by the Safety Car in the final stages of the GP, the 1997-born driver managed to secure the third step of the podium.
