Racing
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Charles Leclerc said his angry radio criticism of Kimi Antonelli during the Miami Sprint was “a bit too harsh,” after a tense early duel between the two left the Ferrari driver fearing they would collide.
The flashpoint came in the opening phase of Saturday’s 19-lap race, when Antonelli’s slow start from the front row dropped the Mercedes into a wheel-to-wheel fight with Leclerc. After getting ahead at the start, Leclerc had to defend through several attacks from the championship leader and complained to Ferrari race engineer Bryan Bozzi: “Kimi is… so bad on wheel-to-wheel. He moved under braking, it’s unbelievable. We’re going to crash.”
Leclerc held the position, then eased clear as the Sprint unfolded and finished third on the road. But once he was out of the car, he stepped back from the accusation and admitted the moment had got the better of him.
Asked about the radio message afterward, Leclerc said: “I was being a bit harsh, maybe, with the adrenaline inside the car.” He added that the tension with Antonelli was not new, saying: “It’s true that we’ve had our moments with Kimi in the past, and I hope this calms down a little bit going ahead, especially he’s the only Italian driver on the grid against Ferrari.”
He also made clear the dispute was limited to those on-track moments rather than any personal issue. “I wish it was with someone else, and I really like Kimi also as a person,” Leclerc said. “So, no, it’s just sometimes a little bit too close for comfort and not really needed as well.” He later went further in comments to Sky Sport F1, saying: “I would like to apologize for the comments I made about Kimi at the start of the race, which were a bit aggressive.”
Leclerc said he did not stand by the substance of what he had said in the car. “I don’t think what I said,” he said, while repeating that their battles have often been more aggressive than he would like and expressing hope that “it can go better in the future.”
The clash mattered beyond the radio exchange because both drivers were fighting for important Sprint points. Antonelli initially crossed the line fourth, but a five-second penalty for repeated track-limits violations dropped him to sixth. That left him still leading the championship by seven points over Mercedes team-mate George Russell, while Leclerc remained third on 55 points heading into Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.