Ferrari’s handling of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Zandvoort has reignited debate over the team’s decision to replace Carlos Sainz with the seven-time Formula 1 world champion. Former F1 manager and long-time observer Peter Windsor believes Ferrari got the Carlos Sainz-Lewis Hamilton switch wrong and has now created a driver-management problem that is extremely difficult to solve.
Tension within Ferrari became clear after the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, narrowly behind Mercedes driver George Russell and ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc, but the British driver openly expressed frustration with some of Ferrari’s strategic decisions.
Lewis Hamilton believed Ferrari had wasted valuable time by keeping him behind Charles Leclerc, who was on fresh tyres, just as the seven-time world champion was chasing a potential podium. Hamilton publicly criticised the team over the radio, accusing Ferrari of “wasting time” and arguing that the failure to swap the two drivers had cost important championship points. He subsequently walked back those comments after the race.
Peter Windsor says Ferrari should have kept Carlos Sainz
Speaking on the Cameron CC podcast, Peter Windsor analysed the situation in detail and argued that Ferrari appeared “scared” of telling Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc what to do. In his view, managing two drivers of such stature is an almost impossible task.
Peter Windsor recalled: “I’ve always said that Leclerc and Sainz formed a very good team. Carlos was quick enough to win when Charles had a problem. At the same time, he never stepped on his toes. It was a perfectly balanced team. And then what did they do? They dismantled it and brought in Lewis. I’m not criticising Lewis’s decision to go to Ferrari at all. I’m just saying Ferrari didn’t need to do it. But when you have two enormous stars in the car, what do you do? It’s impossible to manage. That’s why I kept saying they should keep Sainz.”
The former Ferrari driver can still be followed through ScuderiaFans’ dedicated Carlos Sainz archive, while his replacement has placed Ferrari in the unusual position of having two drivers with enormous standing both inside and outside Formula 1.
Peter Windsor continued: “You can’t manage it because Charles has his point of view, Lewis has his. Both have to be respected, obviously, and the poor engineers on the pit wall have absolutely no chance of managing it. The only person who would have the ability to do it is Frédéric Vasseur, and we never really hear him on the radio.”
Ferrari team orders become central to the Hamilton-Leclerc problem
For Peter Windsor, the issue goes beyond Ferrari’s individual strategy calls. He believes only someone at the very top of the organisation has enough authority to intervene decisively when Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have competing interests during a race.
The Zandvoort situation had already produced one of Ferrari’s most uncomfortable radio exchanges of the season, with Lewis Hamilton complaining that Ferrari was losing time while he remained behind Charles Leclerc.
Peter Windsor explained: “If you want to take Hamilton instead of Sainz, you know there are going to be dramas and you know the situation at Zandvoort was bound to happen. You have to have somebody who can make a decision, and that person has to be somebody both drivers respect and respond to immediately.”
He continued: “It can’t be one of the race engineers. It can’t even be a senior engineer overseeing both cars. It has to be somebody at the top who says, ‘Right, this is what we’re doing, full stop,’ and that’s it, he runs the team. They don’t have that, and it’s one of the reasons why I said putting Lewis alongside Charles would be a mess. The same mess you would have putting Charles alongside Verstappen, for example.”
Peter Windsor says Ferrari is afraid to impose clear orders
Peter Windsor was then asked directly whether Ferrari is afraid to give Charles Leclerc team orders. His answer was unequivocal, although he stressed that he believes exactly the same issue applies to Lewis Hamilton.
“Oh yes, absolutely. But equally they don’t want to do it with Hamilton either. That’s exactly my point. They can’t tell either of them. They’re both megastars in their own way. Lewis is a seven-time champion. Charles is the one who has never won a championship, but he is the biggest hero of Ferrari, Italy and Monaco. They both have their platforms and everybody is afraid to tell them what to do.”
Peter Windsor concluded that Ferrari’s leadership structure is therefore at the heart of the problem: “That’s why the mess is at Ferrari: because Fred at the top doesn’t say, ‘This is what is going to happen.’ Who else can say it? It doesn’t matter who says it, they won’t listen.”
The debate places additional focus on team principal Frédéric Vasseur, who has already had to address the Hamilton-Leclerc radio tension following Ferrari’s missed Zandvoort podium. For Peter Windsor, however, the broader question is whether Ferrari can establish a clear enough chain of command to manage two drivers whose status makes conventional team orders considerably more complicated.
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