Charles Leclerc believes possessing a similar driving style to team-mate Lewis Hamilton will be advantageous to Ferrari with the development of its 2025 Formula 1 car.
Leclerc will have an alternative presence in the opposite Ferrari garage this season as seven-time F1 champion Hamilton has replaced previous incumbent Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari is bidding to draw upon the Briton’s vast experience within multiple title-winning teams as it endeavours to end a protracted championship drought dating back to 2008.
Leclerc, embarking upon his seventh season with Ferrari, has revealed that Hamilton’s expertise has been a valuable asset to the side in the initial weeks of the collaboration.
“It’s really nice to see,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week regarding Hamilton. “Obviously it’s very different the situation that Lewis finds himself in joining the team.
“When I joined, I only had one year in Formula 1 so Formula 1 was still new to me and I had to learn how a team like Ferrari would work in Formula 1, even though I knew the factory and everything by being in [the] Ferrari Driver Academy.
“For Lewis, an Italian team is new to him, but he’s achieved so much. It’s really cool to see what it was like for him to have so much success in other teams and the way they used to work.
“We’ve learned a lot and it was really exciting also to see how happy and excited he was about the whole thing.
“For me, that meant that the off-season was a bit more in the shadow, but I enjoyed it.
“I focused on myself, I’m pushing at the maximum to be ready for the first race and I’m really looking forward to this year.
“I’m hoping that we’ll start the year in a more positive way compared to last year.”
Why Hamilton ‘surprised’ Leclerc at Ferrari
Ferrari organised a rigorous testing programme to aid Hamilton’s adaptation, which included several outings at Fiorano and Barcelona prior to pre-season testing.
Leclerc divulged that his initial experience observing Hamilton at the wheel of a Ferrari highlighted that the two demand similar traits from the car to operate at their best.
The Monegasque driver has highlighted how that could prove to be a valuable aid to Ferrari as the team sets the development direction for its 2025 challenger, the SF-25.
Asked whether he has been on the same wavelength as Hamilton with set-up and development at Ferrari, Leclerc responded: “Yeah, I was surprised.
“I mean, our driving style is very similar. We both like to push quite a lot, especially the entries and on that, we are similar.
“That’s positive because I think it requires the same thing out of the car and I think as a team that is always a good thing because we’re definitely pushing in the same direction because we need the same things. That was good and we’re working super well together.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of time together since the beginning of the year.
“Less on track, more in the studio to do pictures, which is not the part we enjoy most, but it’s part of the job.
“I’m looking forward to race with him and hopefully bring Ferrari back to the top.”
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Leclerc is saying something that seems really important but often ignored by teams when pairing drivers. Selecting two drivers with opposite styles creates an inevitable tug of war in car design. Either one driver loses out or both find themselves compromised. I’ve thought this for years and driver grumbling has implied this, but it’s not often you hear it directly voiced.