Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari have switched the focus of their efforts from one driver to another, and doubts they’ve made the right choice.

Ferrari unsuccessfully attempted to impose orders on their drivers in Russia, telling Sebastian Vettel to let Charles Leclerc overtake him. Hamilton said the team has clearly changed its approach to which driver is favoured.

“It’s an interesting dynamic they have there because obviously the Seb was number one and now clearly not,” Hamilton told media at Suzuka. “From kind of the energy, from the outlook, they’re trying to ramp Charles up to be.

“Is that good for a team? I don’t think so. But that’s the philosophy they’ve had for forever.

“We don’t complain because we have a good philosophy, it works really well here and we don’t plan on changing it any time soon.”

In Russia, Ferrari tried to co-ordinate how its drivers would approach the first corner, using Leclerc to help Vettel pass Hamilton. However Hamilton believes Leclerc was wrong not to block the inside line for turn two, where Vettel overtook him.

He compared Ferrari’s tactics with how he and Valtteri Bottas have handled the start in Sochi: “We work together as a team when we do that start.

“[If] I’m pole [or] Valtteri’s pole, instead of giving the tow to the third place guy, giving the tow to second place guy. We work together in that scenario, we did it a couple of years ago. He covered it inside, I got a tow, we locked up and he kept the lead.

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“So I understand that working ethic. But I think Charles had said that ‘I’ll let you take the tow’ and didn’t move and defend which he should have done. You don’t give up a place and then expect to get it back.”

Hamilton compared the situation at Ferrari to his relationship with Fernando Alonso in his first season of F1 at McLaren in 2007.

“I’ve not had a team back the other side so much, so heavily, before. Obviously when I was with Fernando he was the hired number one. But then mid-season they changed that.

“He was still the number one because he was the highest-paid driver, et cetera, but then they gave us equal fuel and then you started seeing changes like Montreal and Indianapolis, were we had equal fuel loads and stuff like that. Then that dynamic shifted, and it obviously didn’t go well for the team.

“I do understand because ultimately when you arrive you want to have equal opportunity, I think. But there are drivers that always wanted that number one status. It’s easier for them. I like to earn that. Start on an equal platform, then either of you can get that number one status on that weekend: Weekend in, weekend out, rather than [over] the course of the season.”

Asked by German media whether he felt he had become the number two driver at Ferrari, Vettel said: “Definitely not.”

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2019 F1 season