Charles Leclerc has opened up on how Lewis Hamilton has “surprised” him both inside and outside the car in their time as team-mates at Ferrari to date in Formula 1.
Hamilton is six months into his long-awaited maiden season with Ferrari, one that hasn’t lived up to the expectations that surrounded his winter move from Mercedes.
Leclerc has out-raced Hamilton on all but one occasion in the opening nine races, though the seven-time F1 champion did secure Ferrari’s only win in the China Sprint.
Hamilton has admitted that his adaptation at Ferrari has been tougher than he envisaged, a process that the Italian marque’s troublesome SF-25 car has exacerbated.
But despite that, Leclerc has noted that his team-mate’s notorious prowess on the brakes is one element that has remained prominent during his initial months in red.
“I expected many, many things from Lewis, obviously, joining the team and having so much success,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week in Canada.
“In F1, you kind of expect to see the speed, the special things in terms of driving. So all these kind of things were expected.
“I still got surprised with the way he brakes, by example. I think how late he brakes is very, very, very impressive.
“In my career, I’ve always been the one braking later than my team-mates. And that is a particular driving style that I didn’t really see in any of my team-mates.
“I think Lewis is a step ahead even more so in that direction. So that surprised me.”
Hamilton providing an ‘example’ to Leclerc
However, Leclerc detailed that observing how Hamilton manages his time to ensure his various outside interests don’t impact his racing has impressed him the most.
The Monegasque, who runs his own ice cream brand ‘LEC’, explained that he is drawing on his team-mate’s expertise in that regard to handle his external endeavours.
“But then for the rest, I think the rest is what surprised me the most. And it’s things that I did not expect,” he continued.
“His discipline is very, very impressive. From outside, I obviously remember I was seeing him and managing so many different things. And I was like, ‘this has to be hard.’
“But then when you look at how organised everything is, you can understand that he’s just 200 per cent focused on racing.
“And then everything is super well organised for these other projects to run very smoothly without his implications daily.
“That’s something that I take as an example for me, because we’ve all got passions, we’ve all got projects outside racing.
“But obviously, for all of us, the most important is that we stay focused on racing. And I think on that, Lewis is very, very impressive.”
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