Fred Vasseur has had enough of Ferrari's internal fireworks. Following the very public fallout from Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc's opening-lap confrontation in Mexico, the Scuderia team principal summoned both drivers for a meeting in Sao Paulo on Thursday evening, with one overriding message: Ferrari comes first, and neither driver should forget it.
The intervention follows a bruising Mexican Grand Prix in which what should have been a golden opportunity for Ferrari turned into another exercise in frustration.
Hamilton and Leclerc went wheel-to-wheel at the start, both running off the track as they battled for the lead. The ensuing controversy saw Hamilton lose ground to Max Verstappen, while Leclerc was penalised before eventually surrendering the lead to the Red Bull driver.
Verstappen went on to win, Hamilton finished second and Leclerc could manage only fourth. A potential third victory of the season had slipped through Ferrari's fingers, with the intra-team battle attracting considerably more attention than the team's missed opportunity.
Hamilton was particularly unhappy, questioning the severity of the penalty handed to his teammate and subsequently calling for serious discussions with Leclerc and Vasseur. The seven-time world champion also suggested that the Monegasque was racing him more aggressively than he did other competitors.
Vasseur draws a line in the sand
Clearly unimpressed with the public spectacle, Vasseur used Thursday's media session in Brazil to confirm that the necessary conversations had taken place behind closed doors.
His message was not particularly complicated, but it left little room for interpretation.
"The guidelines are always the same. They are two competitors with a fighting spirit for sure, but they need to have respect for each other," Vasseur said.
"But mainly and firstly, they need to respect the brand, the team, the people working at home, the people working on track. I think we are putting a lot of effort on this and the message was clear and will stay clear."
Asked about Hamilton's suggestion that Leclerc had been particularly aggressive towards him, Vasseur was reluctant to single out his younger driver, pointing instead to his willingness to take on Verstappen in Austin.
"He said that he was fighting probably a bit harder with him than with some others, but if you have a look at what Charles did in Austin in the first sector, everybody said that it was magic," Vasseur said.
"The line is fine between the two. But he didn't crash into the other car."
Ferrari must come before personal ambitions
The Frenchman nevertheless acknowledged that the Mexican episode represented a collective failure, particularly given Ferrari's commanding position during the opening exchanges.
"For sure, in this situation, we failed collectively because we were one and two and we didn't win the race at the end. That means that it's clear that we failed and we have to react,” he said.
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Hamilton digs in over Leclerc clash: ‘I'm not going to be silenced’And if anyone was still wondering where his priorities lie, Vasseur made sure to spell them out once more.
"But the conclusion of the meeting yesterday evening was clear that it was a clear reminder that the Ferrari is coming first, is coming first for the brand, for the employees, for the Tifosi, and this we have to keep it in mind,” the Ferrari chief concluded.
With Ferrari's ambitions demanding cooperation rather than internecine warfare, Vasseur has reminded his two star performers that wearing red comes with responsibilities – and that the badge on the car matters more than the name on the cockpit.
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