Most experts (and fans) believe Lewis Hamilton's chances of victory at Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix were ruined by Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, but prominent F1 insider Peter Windsor has a different take.

The Ferrari duo stole all of the headlines on the day that F1 crowned its youngest-ever world champion in Kimi Antonelli, with Hamilton and Leclerc once again embroiled in on-track drama in Mexico City.

Hamilton had started the race on pole but by turn four he had team-mate Leclerc on his tail, attempting an overtake around the outside heading into the corner. Neither driver went on to make the turn, but Leclerc drove across the grass and cut turn five, whereas Hamilton made the corner and then gave up P2 to eventual race-winner Max Verstappen.

This put Leclerc in the lead, and he did not give it up, though he was eventually hit with a five-second time penalty. Hamilton was furious with this. "The stewards are basically handing Charles this win," he claimed over the radio.

Peter Windsor: Qualifying error is what really cost Hamilton in Mexico

Post-race, Hamilton did not hold back on Ferrari's troubles, demanding 'serious talks' behind the scenes to ensure these things do not happen in future. It's worth noting, though, we did hear similar things earlier this year after tension at the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix.

Now, in his analysis of the weekend, Windsor has claimed that what really cost Hamilton the win in Mexico was that he started on used soft tyres, not his team-mate. Hamilton was forced into this after a lock-up in Q2 on his first timed lap left him down the order and needing to put on a new set of softs that might otherwise have been saved for the race.

Windsor believes that had those tyres been saved and fresh on Hamilton's car for lights out, Leclerc would not have had the opportunity to get so close and try to pass him into turn four in the first place. Though he does acknowledge that the Leclerc incident did not help.

“Lewis said afterwards it was that moment that cost him the Mexican Grand Prix,” Windsor said on his YouTube channel. “And he may well be right because if Charles hadn't done that, Lewis probably would have just settled into the lead; Max would have been behind both Ferraris, probably with no chance to get past them at an early stage of the race, and probably Lewis would have won that race.

However, Windsor continues: “Although, of course, the jury is very much out on how quick he would have been on those used softs compared with Charles. The reason Charles was all over Lewis in those first two, three, four, five corners was because he was on the new softs and Lewis wasn't and Lewis left himself exposed as he did at Singapore.

“In Singapore it was a genuine mistake because he didn't need to go out in Q1 and use a second set of softs because he was already safely through to Q2. Here, he had to do it. The mistake was not putting on the softs; the mistake was locking up and running wide in Q2 when he was purple in sector one on that lap, and he was pretty quick in sector two as well, so all he had to do was just cruise through sector three and you would have been easily through to Q3.

“But he locked up and that was really what cost him, in my opinion, the Mexican Grand Prix because Charles wouldn't have been anywhere near Lewis if Lewis had been on new softs [at the start].”

We don't have to wait long to see how this all plays out next time the drivers are on track, with the Brazilian Grand Prix marking the end of F1's current triple header.

It remains to be seen whether or not Hamilton gets the serious talks behind the scenes that he demanded in Mexico.