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Ferrari have been told to get their drivers in line by threatening to send them home if they work against the team's efforts on track again. The row has emerged since last Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix, which really should have been won by the Scuderia but which went instead to Max Verstappen. That was despite Lewis Hamilton starting on pole for the first time in his Ferrari career and team-mate Charles Leclerc leapfrogging George Russell to take second place by the first corner of the race.
On a circuit where overtaking is difficult, Ferrari looked well-placed for a one-two finish. But it all unravelled on that first lap as Leclerc got the scent of an opportunity to take the win for himself and challenge Hamilton for the lead.
It ended with Leclerc cutting a chicane to avoid contact, which resulted in a five-second time penalty. It also cost Hamilton as, amid the melee, Verstappen took advantage of the confusion to slip between the two Ferrari drivers.
That meant the Red Bull star was the one who inherited the lead when Leclerc served his penalty and, though Hamilton tried his best late on, he could not get back ahead of the Dutchman. The seven-time world champion finished second, Leclerc fourth, and team principal Frederic Vasseur was left furious.
He said afterwards that he saw his drivers' actions as a lack of respect towards Ferrari's 2,000 employees who had all worked hard to put the team in the position to win that race. Hamilton was also furious, accusing his team-mate of "working against" him, while Leclerc admitted he deserved a penalty but defended his decision to go for the overtake.
Ferrari have arguably the strongest driver lineup in F1, but that comes at the cost of both of them feeling like they should be the main man on track. Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner knows Ferrari chief Vasseur well and feels his good friend has a difficult problem to deal with.
"It's a fantastic problem to have for Fred, but it's a very not so fantastic problem to have," Steiner said. "It's a fantastic problem, because you've got two drivers which actually have the talent to win races, but they get in the way of each other. But I always say, would you rather have one driver which is as good as either of them?
"I'm not prioritising, and then have somebody like Lance Stroll, would that make you happy? If I would be team principal, it wouldn't make me happy. Obviously, they have got a problem to deal with. They need to deal with that. Do you think they will resolve the situation? I do not think so. This situation will come up again, because they want to win."
If it does come up against, Steiner said he thinks Vasseur should take the remarkably hard-line approach of threatening to send his superstars home if they ruin things for the team again. He added: "I think at some stage, Fred will say, 'Hey guys, if you don't work for the team, we send you home'. Otherwise, he tears his last hair out he has got."
Nico Rosberg knows what it is like to be in the thick of a team-mate duel with Hamilton, having partnered the Brit for several years at Mercedes. He thinks Vasseur must make clear to both drivers "what is acceptable and what is not", to prevent things from getting out of hand.
He said: "Fred Vasseur, he needs to start to act. Once again, as Lewis said before the race, there was no discussion, like clear racing guidelines between the two. It needs to happen, otherwise it's going to keep going like this.
"It gets really bad when the drivers take it in their own hands and disregard whatever has been discussed and just take it in their own hands and sort it out on track and barge the other guy out the way. That can very quickly happen and it's already kind of happening."
Big moments. Packed grandstands. A championship battle that’s heating up.
When the Formula 1 season delivers like this, watching from home just isn’t the same as being there when the lights go out.
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