The fallout from Ferrari's disastrous opening lap at the Mexico City Grand Prix rumbled on ahead of this weekend's São Paulo Grand Prix, after Lewis Hamilton said he is "not going to be silenced" over the frustration he felt with teammate Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc attempted to pass Hamilton around the outside of Turn 4 on the opening lap of Sunday's race, only for both drivers to run off the track and have their chances of victory compromised.
Hamilton immediately lost a position to eventual race winner Max Verstappen as a result of the incident, while Leclerc was penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which also dropped him behind the Red Bull later in the race.
During a red flag period towards the end of the race, Hamilton announced over team radio that Ferrari had "big problems," and speaking to the media after the chequered flag, he was critical of Leclerc's "do or die" approach, saying "serious talks" were needed within the team.
Four days later during his Thursday media sessions in Brazil, the seven-time champion stood by his post-race remarks and revealed internal discussions had not yet taken place due to team principal Fred Vasseur returning to Europe and Leclerc joining his wife for the birth of their first child.
"I don't really care what anyone thinks about what I said, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I say how I feel in the moment," Hamilton said in Brazil when asked if he was worried about how Ferrari might view his comments.
"I did see something that someone was saying that it's calculated the things that I'm saying and I just want to combat that with the fact that when you're in the race your heart rate is like 170, you're driving 200 miles per hour, you don't have time to be calculated what you're saying and thinking what you're saying the media are going to write about.
"You don't think about that, usually your frustration comes out towards the people in your team, particularly the bosses about decisions."
He added: "Of course, there's sometimes you say things and maybe you might regret it afterwards. I don't and I'm never going to apologise for being authentic and real and I'm not going to be silenced. I have not been asked to not say anything and that's just the way it is."
- Kimi Antonelli to honour Ayrton Senna with special helmet at São Paulo GP
- São Paulo Grand Prix: 'Very grateful' Rafael Câmara thanks Haas for early home debut
- Charles Leclerc to miss Brazilian Grand Prix media duty due to birth of baby
Hamilton is convinced the actions of his teammate cost Ferrari a one-two victory and agreed with the assertion that Leclerc races him harder than he races drivers from other teams.
"Yes -- I can see what you see," Hamilton said. "In Singapore [Leclerc] was fully alongside [Verstappen], wheel to wheel, fully on the inside and he backed off. It was definitely different.
"But I mean if you look at the [previous Ferrari] teammates it was the same with Sebastian [Vettel], it was the same with Carlos [Sainz]."
Hamilton confirmed he is still "frustrated" by events in Mexico and said a deeper conversation about the incident would take place in due course.
"Naturally, I was frustrated and I'm still frustrated, so those are conversations that need to be had, we will have those when the time permits," Hamilton said. "Fred's been back in Europe at the team. Obviously, Charles is with his family.
"We had an opportunity to win for the team. The team has done such an amazing job of bringing upgrades this year, they've been working flat out all year long to try and bridge the gap given that we had the power deficit and I think they've done an incredible job.
"We've made lots of changes in how we deliver on our weekend, you've really seen us taking some leaps and bounds and we've scored more points than any other team in the last three races.
"We could have easily had a one-two and so we definitely have to work towards making sure that doesn't happen again."
