Hamilton needs "serious talks" with himself as well as his team-mate

To paraphrase the formidable Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, missing an open goal once could be regarded as misfortune; to miss twice looks like carelessness. Quite what Oscar Wilde would have made of Ferrari's serial capacity to bungle race outcomes this season through the indiscipline of its drivers we can only speculate.

In Mexico City, Ferrari had its cleanest shot at victory for some time, with Lewis Hamilton starting from his first pole position for the Scuderia. Coming after a run of races in which it had failed to convert practice pace into qualifying results, this augured well for Sunday, especially with Charles Leclerc lining up in third place.

One would have expected, after kerfuffles regarding team orders while Hamilton and Leclerc were running different strategies in the Dutch and Singapore GPs, and the needless pushing and shoving that resulted in Hamilton losing time running over the exit kerb at Monza's first chicane, that a diktat would come from above not to cock this up similarly. We can but speculate.

Perhaps it was the thinner air here at 2,200 metres above sea level affecting the oxygen mixture as Hamilton and Leclerc suffered simultaneous rushes of blood to the head on the opening lap in Mexico.

The long run to the first corner at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has the effect of neutralising much of the advantage of being on pole, since it grants a potent slipstream to challengers from the second and third row. As George Russell's Mercedes power unit decided of its own volition to take a raincheck on delivering electrical boost to the rear axle, it was Leclerc and Max Verstappen who surged through to threaten Hamilton into Turn 1.

Hamilton gave Leclerc minimal room at the beginning of the lap

Photo by: Colin McMaster / LAT Images via Getty Images

Some context for what followed: during the regular Friday evening drivers' briefing, a key topic was etiquette through the opening sequence of corners, based on last year's first-lap farrago in which several drivers, including Max Verstappen, went grasstracking at Turn 1. It was agreed that stiffer penalties should be applied to those who took liberties in this area and the following pinch point in the lap.

Accordingly, the stewards ratified this in a document issued on Saturday evening saying that at the start and during any restarts, all drivers would be considered to be both attacking and defending, and would therefore face standard penalties if deemed to have left the track and gained an advantage in Turns 1-3 and 4-6. On top of that, any positioned gained would have to be given back promptly: by Turn 4 in the case of the opening corners, by Turn 12 if the gain came through short-cutting Turns 4-6.

Through the opening corners, then, Hamilton rebuffed his team-mate's advances to the limit of acceptability, initially looking like he was going to run the other Ferrari onto the grass at the outside before thinking the better of it and giving him 'racing room' into Turn 2. Certainly if the two had clashed at this point, Leclerc could have built a case to be entitled to room based on their relative positions at the apex of Turn 1.

The late John Surtees won his only four-wheeled world title at this venue in 1964. And it was he who once observed that sometimes, when you see a couple of drivers going at it ahead of you, the best course of action is to wait for them to take each other out. Thus Verstappen held a watching brief until the two Ferraris outbraked each other into Turn 4, Hamilton taking to the run-off and rejoining, Leclerc mowing the grass and rejoining in the lead after Turn 5.

Leclerc cut Turn 4 and rejoined in the lead

Photo by: Yuri Cortez / AFP via Getty Images

An open-and-shut case, then for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. But by this point Verstappen had passed Hamilton for position so Leclerc could not hand over without allowing Max through too. So the only remaining option was to push on and hope to build a big enough lead to offset the downside of the ensuing penalty.

There are those who quibbled about Leclerc being handed a 5s sanction rather than 10s – but, as the stewards sagaciously observed, neither Hamilton nor Leclerc gave themselves a chance of making the corner. A plague on both your houses, then.

Hamilton railed at the decision over the radio, saying the stewards had in effect gift-wrapped the victory for Leclerc, given Charles now had the advantage of clean air. But he seemed blind to his own role in his downfall.

"Last year I got a ten-second penalty for that same move that he did," said Lewis in the post-race press conference. "Ultimately, it was that that lost us the win today, and, yeah, I think we have to have some serious talks behind the scenes, for sure.

"I could have gone all kamikaze on him and taken him off and lost us the win"

Lewis Hamilton on Silverstone this year

"I think the core thing to remember, which maybe comes with age, is that every decision you make in the car impacts all the people that work in the background for the whole team. So, working as a team is a part of our job and a part of our contract. We have to work as a team, which we could have easily done today. So, it's a shame to see us lose this, as we did.

"Before I joined this team, when I was at Mercedes, I watched and witnessed the back and forth between Charles and Carlos [Sainz] several races, where they were battling so much that the person ahead just pulled away, and they [the Ferrari drivers] had the pace to actually win. But it is one thing when that's happening in fourth and fifth, as opposed to first and second, and you lose the win.

"That's significant. The guy is 28 years old, so I don't think it's an age thing. I think it's a mentality thing. It's like, 'Do or die. Either I win or none of us do,' and it shouldn't be that. It should be us having, getting that one-two. 

"As I said, it's still a good feeling. You know, Silverstone, I could have gone all kamikaze on him and taken him off and lost us the win, but instead the one-two was there. I think we got the one-two. Was it one-three, first and third, one-two? [It was one-three] Whatever. For me, I'm happy for the team to have experienced that, but I'm hopeful we'll work towards a better place, a better working place, in the future."

Joy for Verstappen and Antonelli - but arguably this should have been a Ferrari 1-2

Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images

Is it the case that there is something in the chemistry between these two drivers which is inherently triggering, like two primary school-age siblings bickering incessantly in the back seat of the car on a long journey? Perhaps team boss Frederic Vasseur should follow the example of Jos Verstappen and leave them by the roadside to ruminate on their shortcomings.

Until both parties of the first part accept some responsibility for their actions, this silliness will continue – and no doubt the most senior echelons of Ferrari management will begin to chafe.

Notably, in reflecting on Kimi Antonelli winning the championship here, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff declared "the era of the selfish, ruthless champion has ended", and that Antonelli's win showed a champion could have certain values and "be a good person".

"This is not only something for young drivers, but also for some older people in F1 who keep crashing or moaning on the radio," he concluded.

Who could Toto possibly be talking about?

Is it the 'end of the selfish champion'?

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images