The upcoming rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Ferrari is poised to be one of the thrilling duels of the 2025 Components 1 season.
Ferrari is decided to appropriate the missteps of 2024 and safe their first drivers’ championship since 2007 and their first constructors’ title since 2008. Final season, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz collectively secured 5 victories, however it wasn’t sufficient to surpass McLaren’s problem. To considerably improve their possibilities for the 2025 title, the crew has made a groundbreaking transfer by signing seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton formally started his Ferrari journey this week, finishing his first check on the Fiorano Circuit on Wednesday.
Charles Leclerc joined him on observe for his first run of the 2025 season, forward of the upcoming pre-season testing in Bahrain. He expressed his pleasure about partnering with the 40-year-old, sending a heartfelt and “very particular” message to Hamilton.
The intra-team competitors between Hamilton and Leclerc is predicted to be one of the intense in current historical past, because the British driver seeks to reignite his profession at Ferrari after a sequence of difficult years with Mercedes.
The query of who will emerge as Ferrari’s main driver in 2025 stays unresolved. Each Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc might want to “earn” their spot because the crew’s primary, a scenario paying homage to the 1959 season when Tony Brooks was in the same place.
At the moment, Tony Brooks joined the Maranello crew from Vanwall and went on to complete because the championship runner-up, simply behind Jack Brabham. In a dialog on the Past The Grid podcast, Tony Brooks revealed that he was instructed by Ferrari’s administration that he wouldn’t mechanically be given the primary function. As an alternative, he was instructed that he must show himself worthy of it, simply because the Brit and the Monegasque should do as we speak.
Tony Brooks recalled assembly Enzo Ferrari in his workplace, the place they’d a really constructive dialogue lasting about half an hour. Brooks described the assembly as congenial, throughout which they mentioned the phrases of his potential involvement with the crew. Ferrari, he talked about, had defined that he didn’t appoint a primary driver till the season had begun and performances have been evaluated. Ferrari had stated that the willpower would depend upon who was performing effectively through the season.
Brooks clarified that he hadn’t requested the primary driver place, however Ferrari’s remark made it clear that the function was earned by way of outcomes quite than being mechanically assigned at the beginning of the season. Ultimately, Brooks grew to become the primary driver based mostly on his efficiency, quite than any pre-established designation.
The rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Ferrari is about to grow to be one of the fascinating storylines of the 2025 Components 1 season, and the query of who will finally come out on high is prone to gasoline debates all year long.
At this early stage, it’s unattainable to foretell the end result or to attract significant conclusions from pre-season testing. Whereas Lewis Hamilton clocked a lap time six seconds faster than Leclerc at Fiorano, this benefit was largely as a consequence of Charles Leclerc finishing fewer laps beneath extraordinarily difficult situations, as he drove by way of heavy rain.
Charles Leclerc will initially have the higher hand, given his familiarity with the Ferrari setup and his fluency in Italian, which helps him combine with the crew. Nonetheless, Hamilton is targeted on adapting shortly to his new surroundings at Ferrari and changing into an integral a part of the crew as quickly as attainable.
In the course of the check, Lewis Hamilton was seen greeting his new colleagues in Italian, smiling broadly, which recommended he was genuinely enthusiastic about his transfer to Ferrari. Observers famous that Hamilton appeared energized by the brand new problem, desirous to get began after a tough and irritating conclusion to his lengthy profession at Mercedes.
The Monegasque driver will undoubtedly be one among Hamilton’s hardest teammates so far. The competitors between the 2 is predicted to push Hamilton to new heights, and Guenther Steiner, the Haas crew principal, believes this problem is precisely what Hamilton wants as he joins Ferrari, F1’s most profitable crew.