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"I'm really p****d," admits Hamilton

NEWS STORY
02/11/2026

Lewis Hamilton is critical of teammate Charles Leclerc, blaming the Monegasque for Ferrari missing out on a potential 1-2.

Having made his feelings quite clear throughout the race, and in the moments after crossing the line, following the joyful celebrations of Kimi Antonelli's title win, the seven-time world champion opened up as he reflected on what might have been.

"In the drivers' briefing, we discussed that as soon as you go off in Turn 1, you have to give the position back," he explained. "But obviously, last year I got a ten-second penalty for that same move that he did.

"Ultimately, it was that that lost us the win today," he added, "I think we have to have some serious talks behind the scenes, for sure.

"I had a good start, and I think we had the car to win today," he continued. "Unfortunately, we had the car to easily have first and second, but due to the first two corners, that kind of went away. After that, we just gave it basically to Max, and all they had to do was just stay ahead of us, which he did a good job of doing."

Asked how Leclerc compares to previous teammates, Hamilton said: "I think the core thing to remember, which maybe comes with age, is that every decision you make in the car impacts all the people that work in the background for the whole team. So, working as a team is a part of our job and a part of our contract. We have to work as a team, which we could have easily done today. So, it's a shame to see us lose this, as we did.

"That will just continue unless action is taken, a real deep, serious conversation is had," he warned. "So, it shouldn't happen moving forward.

"Of course, I've had close battles with teammates in the past, and you can't always get it right, but nine times out of ten we should be able to. So, I think we'll take it offline and we'll have some good conversations, hopefully. For sure, it won't be easy, but it must be done."

Asked how surprised he was by Leclerc's failure to hand back the place, he replied: "How surprised was I? At that point, it didn't even matter. We had let Max past, and the race was done from there.

"I don't know what needs to happen now," he admitted, "how we discuss things when we go back. I'm not quite sure how I want to engage in that.

"Of course, the frustrations are today. I'm happy because this guy just won the championship, so I'm really torn because, on one side, I'm happy, and on the other side, I'm really p***ed.

"We lost valuable points, and we, as a team, worked so hard. We could have easily had a one-two today. Really, we had the pace to do so. We're going into Turn 4 first and second. If we just hold position, I think anything can happen in the race. But when your teammate works against you and then you lose positions like that, it's definitely tough.

"We'll just talk about it offline, and it's not really worth saying too much more. We don't have rules of engagement, and whether or not that will change anything from Charles' side, I don't know. We've just got to figure it out, but something needs to change for sure.

"Before I joined this team, when I was at Mercedes, I watched and witnessed the back and forth between Charles and Carlos at several races, where they were battling so much that the person ahead just pulled away, and they had the pace to actually win.

"But it is one thing when that's happening in fourth and fifth, as opposed to first and second, and you lose the win," he insisted. "That's significant.

"The guy is 28 years old, so I don't think it's an age thing. I think it's a mentality thing. It's like, 'Do or die. Either I win or none of us do', and it shouldn't be that. It should be us having, getting that one-two.

"As I said, it's still a good feeling. You know, Silverstone, I could have gone all kamikaze on him and taken him off and lost us the win, but instead the one-two was there. I think we got the one-two. Was it one-three, first and third, one-two? Whatever. For me, I'm happy for the team to have experienced that, but I'm hopeful we'll work towards a better place, a better working place, in the future."

However, it wasn't only his teammate that Hamilton was unhappy with, he was also critical of the track, particularly with the 2026 regulations.

"You can't overtake here," he said. "I think it's something the FIA need to do, and it's just quite bad. I'm sure these guys would agree. We have this clip at the end of the straight where you can't go past a certain speed, so everyone just follows. It's the silliest thing when you are behind and you have a little bit more power in the slipstream. You should be able to go past that to have a chance to overtake. The engine can go faster. It's just they have these silly clips. I mean, it's the worst engine profile setting that I think they've probably ever had in this sport, and it doesn't provide great racing. So today you probably didn't see much overtaking, unfortunately, because of that. Obviously, the starts were fun, but it's a very hard track to follow with the thin air and low downforce. I gave it everything to try and get close to Max, but maybe they needed... I don't know if they need to change the last corner because it's so quick. I don't know. There could be a change to the track, maybe, to enable us to have a little bit better racing. But everyone having this this year just diminishes any opportunity of that."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City here.

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