Charles Leclerc has been advised to wait out Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 career after a resurgent run from the latter has seen him slip behind the seven-time World Champion.
Hamilton has enjoyed a drastically different sophomore year with the Maranello-based team than his debut season, last year.
The all-new technical regulations have seemingly brought the seven-time F1 champion‘s mojo back, with Hamilton now looking more like his old-self in the SF-26.
Hamilton secured his first-ever Ferrari win at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, two weeks ago, and is now 40 points clear of team-mate Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ standings.
For Leclerc, however, Hamilton’s resurgent run might have come as a rude shock, given his dominance over the Briton last season, amid his own struggles with performance in the sister Ferrari car.
Former F1 driver David Coulthard, however, believes the Monegasque to be “mature” enough to rough this out.
“He’s mature enough in his career now to understand that racing against a seven-time world champion, you’re not going to beat him all of the time,” he said on the Up to Speed podcast.
“He probably found it a bit easier than he expected when he [Hamilton] joined from Mercedes, and he basically was still the pace-setter within the team.
“But what we’ve seen this year, think back to Shanghai, where they were pass, repass battling, and we were questioning if Ferrari was doing the right thing letting their drivers race, but actually, it was brilliant entertainment for us, and it was the early signs that Lewis Hamilton was back to his brilliant best.”
Charles Leclerc asked to bank on his ‘multi-million pound’ Ferrari F1 contract amid Lews Hamilton resurgence
As things stand, Hamilton has been the benchmark within the iconic Italian marque.
His win at Barcelona has now made him a strong favorite to challenge the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli for the 2026 F1 title.
On the other hand, Leclerc has seemingly slipped back in the pecking order. After crashing out of his home race in Monaco, Leclerc was forced to retire owing to reliability issues in Barcelona having already crashed out in Q3, a day earlier.
But Coulthard has advised Leclerc to just bide his time, instead of trying to force the issue home.
“So he will, of course, be disappointed in his own performance in the last couple of grands prix, but he’s got a multi-million-pound secure contract going forward,” Coulthard added.
“Even if the worst comes to the worst for him, in that Lewis continually delivers, gets the wins, wins the championship, Lewis can surely only be around for another two years, three years.
“I can’t imagine he’ll be around for the next five years, which I imagine is the length of contract that Charles Leclerc has.”
Heading into the Austrian GP weekend, Leclerc would be hoping to bank on his five-podium record at the Red Bull Ring instead to make amends for a disappointing start to 2026 so far.
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc issued praise despite disastrous F1 double-header
Discussion about this post