Charles Leclerc has played down suggestions of a problem with Lewis Hamilton after a tense end to the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix, but the Ferrari driver made clear that he was unhappy with how the team handled a crucial part of his strategy at Zandvoort. The Monegasque confirmed that he and Lewis Hamilton had not spoken after the race, while explaining why Ferrari’s decision to pit him left him frustrated in his battle with George Russell.
The tension between Ferrari’s drivers had appeared increasingly visible by the end of the race. Lewis Hamilton had already expressed frustration with Ferrari’s Dutch GP strategy over team radio, questioning why he had not been allowed past Charles Leclerc when the two drivers were running together on different strategies.
Charles Leclerc addresses Lewis Hamilton tension after Dutch GP
Charles Leclerc had his own frustrations. After crossing the line in fifth place, immediately behind Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari number 16 pulled alongside the other SF-26, looked towards his team-mate and repeatedly shook his head. The moment came at the end of a race in which Ferrari had been forced to make difficult calls between its two drivers, an issue that had already been anticipated in the Ferrari team-orders debate before the Dutch Grand Prix.
Speaking to French broadcaster Canal+ after the race, Charles Leclerc confirmed that there had been no post-race discussion between the two Ferrari drivers.
“Have Hamilton and I spoken? No,” Charles Leclerc said. “But sometimes there’s frustration on my side, sometimes there’s frustration on Lewis’s side, and in general we get along very well. So there won’t be any problems from that point of view.”
It was not the most emphatic attempt to dismiss the tension, and Charles Leclerc then went into greater detail about the controversial strategic sequence. Like Lewis Hamilton, he had concerns about how Ferrari managed the situation, although his complaint was very different from that of his team-mate. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur later offered his own explanation of the Hamilton-Leclerc radio tension.
Charles Leclerc explains Ferrari Dutch GP strategy frustration
Charles Leclerc revealed that his preference had been to extend his stint rather than stop when Ferrari called him into the pits, with the aim of creating a larger tyre advantage later in the race.
“I would have liked to stay out longer,” Charles Leclerc explained. “Before the race we had discussed our preferences and that was my preference. Then at the start of the lap the team asked me to come into the pits, but at the end of the lap they asked me to stay out. And that’s what I did. Then, I think two laps later, I came into the pits.”
The key point for Charles Leclerc was the battle with George Russell. Ferrari had been attempting to put pressure on the Mercedes driver and potentially force him into stopping first, which could have allowed Charles Leclerc to extend his stint and build a greater tyre offset.
“The only thing that bothered me a little, it’s true, is that we were trying to put pressure on Russell so that he would stop, and then we could have stayed out longer to create a bigger tyre difference. But in the end I found myself five seconds behind Russell on more or less the same tyres, having stopped almost at the same time.”
“So at that point, it was as if I had resigned myself to finishing behind Russell, and that was mainly what bothered me at that stage of the race. But that’s how it went, never mind,” Charles Leclerc concluded.
The result left Ferrari fourth and fifth at Zandvoort, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc but both drivers behind George Russell in the final podium position. The complete finishing order is available in the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix results.
