The Lewis Hamilton detail that says everything about his character – Ferrari insider

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley has weighed in on the current ruckus at the team after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc clashed at the Mexico Grand Prix.

Hamilton was audibly fuming on the radio for much of the race after the first lap incident in which his team-mate pushed him off the track, pushing the Brit from the lead down into third place.

Leclerc received a five-second penalty for the move and ended up finishing fourth to Hamilton's second place, but the seven-time world champion was heard complaining on team radio that the punishment wasn't enough to undo the damage done to his race.

When the race was red flagged for a period some 45 laps after the incident, Hamilton ominously warned again on team radio: "We've got big problems. Big, big problems."

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Rob Smedley: Hamilton is never close to unsportsmanlike

Smedley, who was Felipe Massa's long-time race engineer when the Brazilian was fighting Hamilton for the championship back in the late 2000s, spoke about the flashpoint on the High Performance Racing podcast this week.

"What people probably don't understand about Lewis," he said, "is that he is very correct. He will never go out...he will always do the right thing in the car, right? He never borders on being un-sportsmanlike.

"You know, he will do what he needs to to win, but he will never cross a line, and I think you've got to have a lot of respect for Lewis Hamilton for that. And anybody who knows him and has worked with him, they always have that same consistent message."

Former Ferrari race engineer: You've got to have rules of engagement

When it was pointed out to Smedley that Hamilton has discussed the lack of formal 'rules of engagement' at Ferrari, he seemed somewhat surprised by the information.

"You've got to have rules of engagement," he said. "Don't conflate the two things of Lewis coming off better or Charles coming off better, and whoever's behind being aggrieved, because that just happens, that's just racing.

"But the bit that is – and it's only conjecture, I didn't know anything about this until you told me earlier – if there really are no rules of engagement, I'm not sure how you manage a race. I wouldn't want to manage a race like that."

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