Charles Leclerc has revealed his initial impressions of working alongside Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, highlighting surprising similarities in their driving styles.
The Monegasque driver believes this shared approach will be a significant asset for the team.
Hamilton officially joined Ferrari in January and has been actively participating in the team’s “immersion program,” familiarizing himself with the new environment.
He recently joined Leclerc at the F1 75 Live event in London for the team’s livery launch and participated in pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
During the Bahrain test, Leclerc was asked about his experience seeing Hamilton integrate into the Ferrari team.
He noted the difference between Hamilton’s arrival as a seven-time world champion and his own debut in 2019, when he was relatively new to Formula 1.
“It’s really nice to see,” Leclerc said. “Obviously it’s very different, the situation that Lewis finds himself in joining the team. When I joined, I only had done one year in Formula 1, so everything 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 before. For Lewis, an Italian team is pretty new to him, but he has achieved so much and he arrives here as a legend of the sport.”
Leclerc emphasized the value of Hamilton’s experience and the insights he brings from his successful career.
“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, so on that we’ve learned a lot, and it was really exciting to see how happy and excited he was about the whole thing.”
A key revelation from Leclerc was the unexpected similarity in their driving styles. “I was surprised – our driving style is very similar,” Leclerc explained.
“We both like to push quite a lot, especially the entries, and on that we are quite 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’ll definitely push in the same direction because we need the same things, so that was good, and we’re working super well together.”
Leclerc also mentioned the off-track collaboration with Hamilton.
“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 the most but it’s part of the job! And yeah, I’m looking forward to race with him and hopefully bring Ferrari back to the top.”
The comments from Leclerc come after a productive pre-season testing period for Ferrari, with both drivers contributing to the development of the SF-25. The team is aiming for a strong start to the 2025 season, hoping to improve upon their performance from the previous year.
