Charles Leclerc says he doesn’t have any advice to give to Lewis Hamilton after the tough F1 2025 season, but he feels he will come good eventually.
Pre-season, there were murmurs if Hamilton will beat Leclerc at Ferrari in his first F1 season as teammates. No one expected the Italian manufacturer to falter in the manner they did. And the Brit suffered more than the Monegasque in the end, where he had an additional learning to do.
It was a total system change for Hamilton, coming from Mercedes to Ferrari. He also had to adapt to the different venues, driving the Ferrari car and unlearn all what he had learnt with the German team. To the Brit’s unfortunate situation, it already didn’t work for him in the era gone by.
And so, he had multiple things against him and it so happened that he faced a tough challenge. Even though he finished sixth in the drivers’ standings, he scored no podium for the first time in his F1 career. He had a sprint win, but that was the only ‘happy moment’ for the world champion.
There was no advice from Leclerc for Hamilton, though. The Monegasque had his own worries amid a difficult season and so he thought it was better off advicing the Brit. But he feels he will come good eventually after he has gone through the learning process at Ferrari.
He feels it is not just the drivers, but the whole team to be motivated for the new season. “I mean, my job is to obviously maximise whatever I can do in my control, and there’s already so many things I’m focused for myself and the team to try and make sure that my driving fits the car in the best possible way, that it’s,” said Leclerc, when asked if he had any advice.
“Obviously difficult for me to then also spend time and also Lewis has achieved a lot more than I ever did. So yeah, I don’t really have any advices to give him, but it’s for sure a long process whenever you join a new team. I mean, I don’t even remember what it’s like to be joining a new team. It’s been eight years that I’m in Ferrari, so I know how it works and obviously everything feels very natural.
“But for Lewis, it’s still kind of new, even after a year. The processes are completely different, the way you have the vision, the team, the way you work. So all of that still needs some time to get used to. Yeah, it’s tough, but at the same time, honestly, I think the whole team is hugely motivated for next year because it’s such a big change, a huge opportunity to show what Ferrari is capable of, and it’s now or never. So I really hope that we will start this new era on the right foot because yeah, it’s important for the four years after,” summed up Leclerc.
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