Ferrari ambassador and former test driver Marc Gene has dismissed rumours of internal discord, insisting that personal and professional relationships within the team remain strong despite recent and obviously growing tensions.
Lewis Hamilton's struggles to adapt to Ferrari reached a new low during Sunday's Miami Grand Prix, where the 40-year-old vented intense and repeated frustration over the radio, criticising engineer Riccardo Adami for communicating during braking and racing battles.
Hamilton sarcastically asked if Adami wanted a "tea break" to discuss a request to swap positions with Charles Leclerc, adding, "This is not good teamwork, that's all I'm going to say," alongside other exasperated words like "Jeez" and "fricking."
Leclerc, meanwhile, limited his complaints to the car's lacklustre performance, addressing the internal issues cautiously. "I don't know what I can say and what I can't say, but we have to talk," he said.
"We shouldn't try to do better, we have to do better. But I have to talk more with the team than with Lewis, because I'm not angry with him—there was no bad intention. He wanted to maximise, like me.
"I don't know what Lewis was saying, but I don't hold it against him at all in any case. Unfortunately, I'll go with the boring answer—I won't comment too much. And there are no hard feelings towards Lewis, absolutely none. We just need to be better as a team."
Hamilton, post-race, downplayed his outburst. "It's frustrating in those moments," the seven-time world champion said. "What's our objective? Do we compete against each other or try to overtake the others? But let's talk internally.
"I was frustrated at the time, but not anymore. People will take it out of context and say worse things than I did. I was only being sarcastic."
He recounted a post-race conversation with team principal Frederic Vasseur, saying, "Fred came into my room. I put my hand on his shoulder and said 'Mate, calm down. Don't take it so personally'."
Amid speculation that Hamilton's struggles and vocal criticisms are eroding support from Italian media and even Ferrari's management, he remained defiant. "I'm sure there are some sensitivities, but I'm not feeling sensitive," he said.
"We're not where we want to be."
Vasseur minimised the controversy, stating, "I can understand the frustration on both sides because it's never easy to swap places. We asked them twice and they did it twice, the feedback is another matter. But they did the job we asked them to do."
Marc Gene firmly rejected suggestions of internal strife. "The relationship between the engineers and the drivers is good, as is the relationship between Charles and Lewis," the Spaniard told Sky Italia.
Dutch racing commentator Tom Coronel, however, expressed disillusionment with Hamilton's demeanour. "Do you really want to know what I think?" he began. "I don't like listening to him anymore.
"He's not the driver I knew from before. He's always looking around in interviews, chewing his gum, and doesn't seem to be very interested."
