AUGUST 26, 2026

Ferrari team-order debate deepens after Zandvoort

Ferrari's decision not to rearrange Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Zandvoort has divided former drivers and team insiders.

Lewis Hamilton's frustration at Zandvoort has reopened one of Formula 1's oldest debates: when should a team stop treating its drivers equally and begin arranging its races around the championship?

Hamilton lost time behind Charles Leclerc during the Dutch Grand Prix, while Mercedes was rather more decisive in moving Kimi Antonelli ahead of George Russell. The contrast did not escape Hamilton, although he subsequently apologised for the tone of his radio messages and post-race criticism.

Former Ferrari engineer Luigi Mazzola believes Maranello was correct to avoid intervening. His argument is straightforward: Hamilton remains 59 points behind championship leader Antonelli, level with Russell, and Ferrari would create more trouble than it solved by declaring a hierarchy prematurely.

Ferrari did well not to issue team orders, because that would have bitterly upset one or two drivers, Mazzola told Sky Italia.

He added that there was no compelling championship reason to favour Hamilton while the seven-time champion remained so far from the lead.

Timo Glock takes the less charitable view. To him, Ferrari had an opportunity to limit the damage to Antonelli and failed to organise matters properly.

There's always a catch with Ferrari, Glock told Sky Deutschland. Now it was the implementation of the perfect strategy that they failed to pull off.

Both arguments have merit. Ferrari does not yet have a driver close enough to Antonelli to justify sacrificing the other. Equally, championships have a habit of being decided by points that teams considered unimportant several months earlier.

The real problem was probably not the absence of a formal number one, but Ferrari's inability to arrange its cars without turning the situation into a public dispute. Team orders are rarely popular, but indecision tends to be even less so.