Charles Leclerc, what are you doing??

So Monza was pretty good fun, wasn't it? Pierre put it on pole, Kimi won from the back and there is drama afoot at the Scuderia. Trouble in paradise? Absolutely. Tensions have been bubbling. In fact, my last video was talking all about Lewis's post-race comments after Zambor directed, particularly at the team. But now Charles Leclerc has thrown his hat into the ring with a baffling bit of decision making that has well and truly blown the lid Unfortunately, I don't believe for a second that everything is fine. My name's Tomo, let's talk about it. But then so did Kimi when he made his debut FP1 run out a couple of years ago. So, it happens. It's easy to forget that motorsport can and always will be dangerous. In fact, we had an incredible example of that this weekend in China. Luke Hartog saving Oli Millroy's life, pulling him out of the car unconscious from his flaming Ferrari, injuring himself in the process as well. What an absolute hero he is and what an absolute failure of the marshals that weekend as well. That is not good enough. But yes, back to Ferrari, back to Monza. That was the worst possible end to that first lap for Ferrari, wasn't it? And Charles, you know what? It's kind of unlucky but also he's just pushed a little bit too hard, isn't he? It's such fine margins on that corner. He's desperate to not give Oscar another run down into that first chicane. So, absolutely trying to maximise his exit on Parabolic and just dips a wheel. It's a mistake and that happens, okay? We can accept that but as for what happened lap 1, turn 1, 2, that shouldn't be happening. We all know that Monza turn 1 and 2, that first chicane, is one of the diciest corner sections in motorsport. If you've ever played Monza on any sim online, you know this well. It only takes one muppet to wipe everyone out basically. And of course, that happens less in real life but it still happens. But actually, this time out, everyone was broadly on their best behaviour. Hulkenberg caught Lawson's front wing on the restart but other than that, nothing major. And certainly, it is an opportunity to gain positions and that's exactly what Lewis did, didn't it? Because off the line, Pierre and George held position in P1 and P2, then Scholl P3, Lewis P4. Oscar and Max behind Lewis weren't giving him much to worry about. He could focus his eyes ahead. Scholl moves left to try and open up turn 1 and Lewis senses an opportunity, chucks it up the inside. Absolutely fair move, no question. Gets the apex, gives Scholl room on the outside as they are going into the second part of the chicane. Again, at that point, zero problem. Scholl, you know, has been caught napping a little bit but he's still well alongside Lewis. They are essentially side by side going into 1 and Lewis has positioned himself for the outside of turn 2, absolutely alongside, if not a little ahead. The only problem is, Scholl doesn't extend the same courtesy to his teammate, allowing his car to run wide, giving Lewis zero space, even though he's entirely alongside, if not ahead, and showing Hamilton into the gravel. Look, I have so many problems with this, especially the fact that the stewards didn't even decide to investigate, which for me, like, I know they're lenient with lap 1 incidents, I know they're lenient when it's teammates, but for me this is egregious and a precedent should be set that you can't do this on lap 1. I've said this before, I'll say it again, I hate these ahead at the apex rules, I think they are anti-racing, this is exactly what we saw here. Drivers getting pushed off, robbing us of, you know, imagine Scholl and Lewis taking that run down to the second chicane side by side, fighting, like, we were robbed of that battle because you just shoved him off the track. But the thing is, even in the writing of these stupid rules that I don't agree with, I still think Scholl was in the wrong. Looking on and off board, it is very clear to me that Lewis spends the entire time basically from the apex of turn 1 being at least fully alongside Scholl, if not ahead. Because Lewis knows he needs to put himself in that position in order to be afforded space within these regulations, he's not stupid. And based off earlier in the season when, you know, Scholl and Lewis in China, for example, went wheel to wheel, lap after lap after lap, and they both gave each other space and they were both incredibly respectful in the way they went racing, it was a joy to watch. I am not surprised Lewis trusted his teammate to give him space, but he didn't. It wasn't even that close. I've seen some people try to say, well, Leclerc had full steering lock. Well, yeah, you can have full steering lock, but if you carry too much speed, you're going to understeer. Of course you are. And it's bad enough to pull this kind of nonsense against Max or Kimi or Lando or Oskar or whoever, but your teammate at Ferrari in Monza? Like, what are we doing, what were you playing at, man? I don't get it. Because I've been very reluctant to buy into this narrative that I've heard parroted online for a lot of this season, that Leclerc's more interested in beating Hamilton than playing the team game. I think, you know, drivers always want to beat their teammate first and foremost, and it's naive to expect to be otherwise. But this instance here absolutely backs that theory up, because Scholl is way too good for that to have been an accident. I think it was calculated. I think he knew in the moment exactly what he was doing, but it's just a really poor decision. This is not an ad read, but I'm going live on Wednesday for my pre-race chinwag for the Madrid Grand Prix. Get involved, link down below to the poll. I want your bangers and claimers predictions. And I know some people have been defensive of Leclerc with this incident. I know Brundle and Chandhok on the Sky broadcast both thought Lewis was putting himself into far too risky position, but I'm sorry, if you can get fully alongside, if not ahead, like Lewis is ahead most of the time through that section. If we're lining up axles here, which I think is the only kind of fair way you can, you can do it. If you're still not entitled space, then what are we doing? We might as well just single file it and no one can overtake anyone and we just sort it out in qualifying on Saturday. Like that is ridiculous. I'm sorry. It's like, I fully disagree with two XF1 drivers coming from a random F1 fan from Rockford. Like, what do I know, I suppose, but I just don't agree with it. I've watched racing my entire life and that kind of move should not be allowed. So the move was bad. Lewis's race ended P6 and he did not mince his words after the fact. Starting with Charles Sky interview after the accident. I don't really know who is forcing that narrative that we are against one another. At Zandvoort, there were way too many talks already. Here it's true though, that we went too far. I think with Lewis in turn one, then in turn two, I tried to do the tightest corner possible, but that was just not enough and doing it here is not good. I know his trajectory couldn't mirror George one for one who is ahead of him because Lewis being up the inside into one compromises Charles entrance into turn two. But again, as a true believer in Charles Leclerc's ability, I have defended this guy left, right and centre. Going into this season, for me, him and Max were on a level above anyone else. He is far too good for this to be a mistake. Where, oh, whoops, I just carried a little bit too much speed and pushed my teammate off the track. Like, I don't believe that for a second. Now was Charles Leclerc's use of the term we, when he said we went too far, just a generic, oh, let's not try and attribute blame publicly kind of thing, maybe. He'd also just been in a massive shunt, so I can absolutely forgive him for not wording things maybe exactly as he intended to in the moment. And also, English isn't his first language, right? So, I'm actually not too kind of displeased with what Charles said post-race, but that was put to Lewis and he wasn't having it. I was ahead in turn two by the apex, I was ahead, so there was no we in it. Look, you know I don't race dirty. I've always raced clean and fairly and always left space, so I don't think they should be worried about me. I've come into the team and tried to be respectful of space and definitely not put the team in jeopardy. I stand by that and that's all I can talk about on my side. You have to speak to Fred about the other side. And look, I don't have many disagreements with Lewis's statement here. No one's perfect and he's almost had a 20-year F1 career as Lewis, so of course he's been caught up in his fair share of incidents where he's overstepped the line. I do think, generally speaking, he is one of the fairer racers in F1. I mean, I've already spoken in my mid-season report about that Piastri move on Hamilton at Canada, how that was so good. A, because Oscar made it happen, but B, because Lewis gave him the space and they were both very, very respectful. Tiny margins either side. They both got it done. It was a great move. It takes two to tango. When you've got one driver who wants to make a genuine attempt to race and go wheel-to-wheel and the other just wants to push you off, it's not going to work. You need both parties on the side. But look, I come back to China again. Charles can do it. I actually think Charles' racecraft is one of his biggest strengths. I really do. I know everyone, one lap pace, that's great. Yeah, one lap pace is very good. Wheel-to-wheel, he is fantastic. I mean, that move he pulled on Georgian Zandvoort last year. Jesus Christ, some of my favourite overtakes in F1 have been Charles Leclerc coded. I mean, 2019 Silverstone, him versus Max. He's like the only guy who can race Max wheel-to-wheel. But actually, in this instance, I don't think it's a racecraft issue. I think it's a bad decision. Honestly, I think it's a decision probably made out of some sort of desperation here, right? Because this season has not gone to plan for Charles Leclerc. Lewis has been toe-to-toe with him every step of the way. Now, Lewis has made his fair share of unforced errors. They have been too common in what has otherwise been a very, very, very good season for Hamilton. Like, quality pace, they are basically neck and neck. And in the races, recently, it's been a lot better from Charles. But certainly in the first third of the season, Lewis was the quicker of the two Ferrari drivers on a Sunday. This is Charles' team. Like, he loves Ferrari. And Ferrari is all he knows. All of a sudden, now, you've got this outsider coming in, who happens to have seven world titles backing him up, trying to mould the team in his own ideal. He's close with Fred. He's Lewis. Of course he is. And he's coming from a Mercedes setup that this current generation of F1 fans and people within the paddock know what they're doing is working. Because for the last, what, 15 years, they've been a consistent feature at the top of the pack. And I think that's resulting in Charles overreaching, be that in will-to-will combat with his teammate, now we're further on in the season. But also, again, the move around Parabolica, where he just pushed a little bit too hard, didn't leave enough margin. And Charles is one of those drivers, you know, he can deliver the greatest quality lap you've ever seen in your life. But there's a reason he had such a bad record at Monaco. It wasn't all bad luck. He would overextend Clipperwall and his race would be over. So that is kind of in Charles' makeup and what makes him so unbelievable to watch. And I just think he's made a really poor decision here that has provoked Lewis to come out with even more statements critical of the team. And part of the pressure on himself in a year where they're not even really fighting for a championship. Unfortunately, let's be real here. It remains to be seen whether Lewis' public clambasting of the team will have the desired effects. Of course, he hopes that that will generate pressure which will lead to results and changes. Lewis has spoken about how Fred has listened to many of the suggestions he's had. But there's also many others that haven't, for various reasons, mainly budgetary. Lewis demands more, exactly as I said last time. But also, yeah, he risks that the egos associated with Ferrari at senior upper management levels or even just within the team can't handle this level of scrutiny and things start to kind of work against him. Because Charles has developed a lot of loyalty, a lot of love, a lot of family feeling within that Ferrari team for sure. But either way, Fred's got a problem on his hands that is not going to go away all by itself. Good luck to him because that is a tough problem to solve. And Ferrari fans, I'm sorry, but I kind of love the drama. So, it is what it is, right? Have I been too harsh on Charles? Let me know in the comments down below. My name's Tomo. Thanks again. Have a good one. Ta-ra.