(Motorsport-Total.com) – “Suboptimal” is how expert Ralf Schumacher describes the dispute at Ferrari last weekend in Zandvoort. Lewis Hamilton, in particular, criticized his team several times on Sunday because he felt he was losing valuable time behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.
Read more «Not understood»: Charles Leclerc criticizes Ferrari strategy in Zandvoort
“I can understand a certain frustration,” Schumacher says in Sky‘s podcast Backstage Boxengasse, but also makes it clear that such situations should be resolved internally – and not over team radio, which is audible to the whole world, or in post-race interviews.
About Hamilton and Leclerc, the six-time Grand Prix winner says: “Both of them need to sit down, and I believe the boss also needs to lay down the law. Because in the end, it’s about the brand, not the drivers. It’s about the team.”
Schumacher finds Hamilton’s behavior, in particular, unacceptable. “At his age, with his standing, one could handle it a bit differently,” says Schumacher, who in this context recalls Hamilton’s own problems in the 2025 season.
At that time, it was the record world champion himself who did not deliver the expected performance. Nevertheless, the team always supported him, which is why Schumacher believes that it is now not right, conversely, “to publicly criticize the team.”
Read more McLaren secret in Zandvoort: New rims as the key to success
Zandvoort: Driver ratings from Marc Surer and the editorial team
The expert thinks back to his own Formula 1 career and emphasizes: “That wouldn’t have happened with us. A Frank Williams would have kicked my backside, and Patrick Head even more so. That didn’t exist. That was an absolute no-go, no matter in which direction.”
“In the end, it’s a team, a unit. And it can only function if it tries to stand together,” says Schumacher, explaining that Leclerc and Hamilton apparently still need to learn “to paddle in the same direction.”
“All of that is part of it,” he says about the disagreements that will always exist. “But not like that,” criticizes the former Jordan, Williams, and Toyota driver.
Hamilton himself has since apologized for the incident. “That wasn’t my best side. I take responsibility for it and will do better,” he announced on social media.