Ferrari reportedly prevented Charles Leclerc’s radio messages from being broadcast during the closing stages of the Dutch Grand Prix, a race that ended with the Monegasque narrowly avoiding contact with Lewis Hamilton as the two team-mates fought over fourth place at Zandvoort.
According to the Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferrari effectively blacked out Leclerc’s radio so that his communications could only be heard internally by the team. The move came during an increasingly tense conclusion to a Grand Prix in which both Ferrari drivers had already expressed frustration with how their respective races were being managed.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton nearly collide on final Dutch GP lap
The most dramatic moment between the two Ferraris arrived on the final lap. Hamilton was running fourth and pursuing George Russell for the final podium position, having apparently used a significant amount of electrical energy during his attempt to close on the Mercedes.
That created an opportunity for Leclerc behind. The Monegasque moved towards the inside approaching the fast Turn 7 and appeared ready to challenge his team-mate for fourth, only for Hamilton to close the door abruptly.
Leclerc reacted immediately, lifting off the throttle to avoid contact and producing a noticeable wobble as he backed out of the move. The pair escaped without an accident, but the incident provided a tense final chapter to a race in which the relationship between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton was under particular scrutiny.
After taking the chequered flag, Leclerc pulled alongside Hamilton, looked towards the other Ferrari and shook his head, making his dissatisfaction with the closing sequence visible even without access to all of his radio communication.
Ferrari reportedly blacked out Charles Leclerc radio
Viewers following Leclerc’s onboard feed had already noticed that radio traffic appeared to disappear during the latter part of the Grand Prix. Some raised the absence of communication on social media before further details emerged after the race.
Gazzetta dello Sport subsequently reported that Ferrari had blacked out the radio channel, meaning Leclerc’s messages remained audible to the team but were not being aired publicly. The suggested reason was an attempt to contain the potential fallout from an already frustrated exchange during the closing stages.
The situation adds another layer to the radio controversy surrounding Leclerc’s Dutch Grand Prix, particularly because the driver himself acknowledged after the race that he had been expressing his frustration to the pit wall.
Speaking to Dutch broadcaster Viaplay in parc fermé, Charles Leclerc explained that he had been somewhat frustrated and indicated that this had also been evident from his radio messages at the end of the race. He added that frustration was natural when events did not unfold as hoped, while also playing down the severity of the situation and making clear that he did not regard it as a major problem.
Strategy had already created tension inside Ferrari
The final-lap battle was not the first difficult moment between the two sides of the Ferrari garage at Zandvoort. Earlier in the race, Hamilton felt that the team had potentially cost him an opportunity to finish on the podium after it declined to immediately impose team orders when he caught Leclerc on fresher tyres at the end of his second stint.
The seven-time world champion had extended his earlier stint and appeared to benefit from the alternative strategy. When he eventually reached the back of the sister SF-26, however, Ferrari did not simply move Leclerc aside, leaving Hamilton frustrated as valuable laps passed while he held a tyre advantage.
The sequence produced a frustrated radio response from Lewis Hamilton, who believed the delay had compromised his attempt to challenge Russell for third place.
Leclerc had his own concerns with Ferrari’s strategy. When the team called him into the pits, he questioned why the stop was being made so soon after Russell had come in, because following the Mercedes into the pits reduced the opportunity to create a meaningful tyre offset for the final part of the race.
The Monegasque later explained the Ferrari instructions behind that strategy sequence, with the two drivers effectively pursuing different objectives at the same stage of the Grand Prix.
Different strategies brought the Ferrari drivers back together
Leclerc had moved ahead of Hamilton at the start of the race, but the Briton’s decision to run longer helped create a different strategic profile. That eventually gave Hamilton fresher tyres and greater pace during a phase in which he was trying to move back towards the podium positions.
The problem for Ferrari was that Leclerc was simultaneously trying to build his own tyre advantage relative to Russell. The conflicting strategic priorities contributed to the tension when the two SF-26s came together on track, with Hamilton wanting clear air immediately while Leclerc had reasons to extend his stint.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur subsequently addressed the Hamilton-Leclerc radio tension and the team’s Dutch GP decisions, after the Scuderia ultimately finished outside the podium places.
Hamilton crossed the line fourth, with Leclerc directly behind in fifth. Their final-lap confrontation therefore did not change Ferrari’s finishing order, but it underlined how closely matched the two drivers remain and how difficult strategic calls can become when both cars occupy the same section of the track.
Hamilton and Leclerc remain exceptionally closely matched
The level of competition between the two Ferrari drivers is reflected in their season-long head-to-head record. After the Dutch Grand Prix, their qualifying contest stands level at 6-6, while the race head-to-head is also tied at 5-5.
That makes Hamilton and Leclerc arguably the most evenly matched team-mate pairing on the grid, with neither driver establishing a consistent advantage over the other across both Saturdays and Sundays.
Zandvoort exposed the complications that can accompany such a close rivalry. Hamilton believed his alternative strategy had created an opportunity to attack the podium, while Leclerc wanted a larger tyre offset of his own before ultimately finding himself close enough to challenge his team-mate on the final lap.
The two avoided contact at Turn 7, but Leclerc’s visible reaction after the finish and the report that Ferrari had restricted the public transmission of his late-race radio have ensured that the closing moments of the Dutch Grand Prix remain another significant talking point in the evolving dynamic between the Scuderia’s two drivers.
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