Toto Wolff criticised Ferrari’s Monza clash before admitting Mercedes came close to the same problem

Toto Wolff has revisited the intense first-lap battle between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix, arguing that the Ferrari teammates crossed a line during their fight at Monza before acknowledging that Mercedes came close to facing a similar situation later in the same race.

The Ferrari confrontation became one of the major talking points from the opening lap. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton immediately found themselves fighting for position after the start, with Hamilton eventually running off the track during the exchange. For Wolff, however, the incident also illustrated how quickly an intra-team battle can become difficult to manage — something Mercedes experienced with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli before the chequered flag.

Toto Wolff disagrees with Charles Leclerc’s approach against Lewis Hamilton

Speaking to Sky about the Ferrari battle, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff made clear that he disagreed with the way Leclerc handled part of the confrontation. In his view, forcing a teammate off the circuit at Turn 2 was not acceptable.

The intensity of the exchange was particularly notable because it involved two drivers from the same team. Leclerc and Hamilton had been fighting hard from the moment the lights went out, and the Briton ultimately went beyond the track during the contest.

The incident formed part of a difficult Italian Grand Prix for the Scuderia. Leclerc would later crash at Parabolica, while Hamilton eventually finished sixth, adding another complicated weekend to Ferrari’s 2026 campaign. The relationship between the team’s two drivers and how Ferrari handles moments of direct competition has consequently remained a point of interest, particularly after previous discussion surrounding Fred Vasseur and Ferrari’s team-order situation.

Mercedes faced its own tense teammate battle at Monza

Wolff’s assessment was not limited to criticising Ferrari. The Mercedes boss also acknowledged how easily his own team could have found itself dealing with similar consequences during the closing stages of the Italian Grand Prix.

With only three or four laps remaining, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli became involved in a close battle. Russell was struggling with worn hard tyres, while Antonelli held a pace advantage of around one second per lap.

According to Wolff, the intensity of the Mercedes fight had not been expected because of the difference in tyre condition and speed between the two drivers. Despite that context, Russell and Antonelli raced each other hard enough to create the possibility of a costly incident.

The situation gave Wolff a direct point of comparison with what had happened between Leclerc and Hamilton. He acknowledged that the two Mercedes drivers could have ended up in the gravel, which would have left his own team looking foolish in much the same way he felt Ferrari had after its opening-lap confrontation.

Wolff sees a fine line when teammates race each other

That comparison added an important qualification to Wolff’s criticism of Leclerc. Although he disagreed with the Ferrari driver’s approach towards Hamilton at Turn 2, the Mercedes team principal recognised that controlling battles between teammates is not a problem unique to Maranello.

For Wolff, the difference between allowing drivers to race and watching an internal fight develop into a damaging incident can be extremely small. Mercedes experienced that tension itself when Russell and Antonelli fought near the end of the same Grand Prix, even though their contest did not produce the outcome Wolff feared.

The two episodes occurred at very different stages of the race. Ferrari’s confrontation came immediately after the start, when Leclerc and Hamilton were fighting on the opening lap, whereas Mercedes faced its tense moment with only a handful of laps remaining and a significant pace difference between its drivers.

Yet Wolff’s comparison centred on the same fundamental challenge: Formula 1 teams must balance allowing their drivers to compete with avoiding a situation in which both cars are unnecessarily placed at risk.

For Ferrari, the Monza exchange added another layer to a season in which both drivers have faced difficult moments. Hamilton’s Italian Grand Prix eventually ended with sixth place, while Leclerc’s accident at Parabolica prevented the Scuderia from bringing both cars to the finish. Attention has since shifted to the next challenges facing the SF-26, including the specific energy demands awaiting Ferrari in Baku.

Wolff’s reflections therefore went beyond judging one Ferrari incident. By pointing to the late-race fight between Russell and Antonelli, he acknowledged that Mercedes had been only a small margin away from having to answer similarly difficult questions about how its own teammates were allowed to race.