Lewis Hamilton has played down the increasing turbulence between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari in recent races.
This year has seen the Monegasque become more vocal towards his treatment by the Italian team, believing his strong results against his teammate should at least earn him equal standing.
When Vettel inadvertently undercut him to take the lead and win in Singapore then, Leclerc was furious, calling it “unfair” and not a week later he was angry again when the four-time world champion didn’t abide by a pre-planned agreement which should have seen him let Charles through,
“I don’t think so,’ Hamilton said when asked if he thought having two top drivers in a team was a disadvantage.
“Over the course of history, you’ve seen world champions in the same team and there’s always going to be friction in a racing team because you’ve got this conflicting target.
“There’s the team but it’s also an individual target between the two drivers. So you are constantly trying to balance that confliction.
“It’s all about trying to find the balance and how it’s managed from the top down. It’s just about respect and how it’s managed.”
Also Read:
- Hamilton understands Leclerc’s wish for Ferrari equality after 2007 experience
- Leclerc level with Hamilton & Verstappen, should be No.1 at Ferrari
- Leclerc not interesting in taking No.1 status at Ferrari for 2020
Hamilton has had all kinds of relationships with teammates during his F1 career, from tense duels with Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg to having No.1 status as he appears to have now at Mercedes.
“Communication is key and there are different philosophies up and down the paddock,” Lewis continued.
“It [equal status] hasn’t worked for a long time over there [at Ferrari] and most likely won’t work going forwards either, but that’s not bad for us.”
As for Bottas, he has had to deal with the tough situation of giving way to Hamilton through the dreaded ‘Valtteri, it’s James’ messages.
And he spoke of the mental toughness needed to cope with sometimes having to give up a victory or a position.
“Those kind of things are always part and different teams have different rules and ways of doing things,” he said.
“It’s not easy, it hurts… I’ve been there sometimes and you never want to be in that position, but, in the end, it’s a lot up to you.
“If you have the pace for it, in normal circumstances you’re not going to be in that situation, but that’s usually how it goes.”
Asked, how he responds in his head to those calls, Bottas continued: “First of all, as a driver, you always think “shall I do it or not?”, but then there are certain things we always discuss before the race, different scenarios.
“So far this year, there’s been nothing that has been nothing that has gone away from the rules; everything has been pretty straightforward, but I’ve been there and in the past and you definitively always think, “should I do it or not?”, but every case is quite different.”