Hamilton was beaten by George Russell in two of the three years they were together, while the Briton outclassed both Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas having only been beaten by the former once in 2016.
Peter Windsor expects Leclerc to be Hamilton’s toughest opponent, given he no longer has the luxury of having a wingman willing to play second best to him on track.
Leclerc has been embedded in Ferrari’s culture for the last six years, having also come through their academy programme and being managed by former Ferrari CEO’s son, Nicholas Todt.
Discussing whether Hamilton could leave Ferrari at the end of 2025, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm outlined one scenario that might impact the Briton’s long-term future at the team when speaking on The Race podcast.
Hamilton will want to fight for wins and titles immediately at Ferrari, now that he is 40 years old and nearing the end of his career in F1.
Ferrari’s track record in recent years has not been the best, but they have still produced cars capable of winning races – an area that Mercedes fell short when the new change of regulations came into play in 2022.
In the unlikely event that things go badly for Hamilton, there might be one scenario that could see him cut ties with Ferrari altogether at the end of 2025.
Mitchell-Malm: “The only thing that would change for 2026, and I think there is a very, very slim chance of this happening, but if Hamilton’s season in 2025 going so badly and him deciding he can’t do this anymore, he’s been nose-bloodied too much by Charles Leclerc and he calls it quits himself.
“Then Ferrari decides that Oliver Bearman had a great season at Haas and the move him across. It will take something like that to shake up the Ferrari lineup.”
Edd Straw: “Yeah I’d agree, pretty unlikely that it won’t be Hamilton and Leclerc.”
The amount of fanfare generated by Hamilton’s move has been massive, with around 3,000 fans alone turning up to watch his first test at Fiorano.
The excitement is building up as Hamilton takes part in more tests and the official car launch on the 19th February nears, before the first pre-season test in Bahrain when we will get our first glimpses of everyone’s 2025 challengers.
Hamilton is undoubtedly one of the most popular drivers on the grid and fans of F1 will be keen to see how he fares in his first few races at Ferrari, and how the dynamic will work between his engineer Riccardo Adami who found success with Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.
Hamilton worked with Adami at the recent private tests in Fiorano and Barcelona, and is expected to use him as his main race engineer for the 2025 season.
Ferrari engineers already reported that Hamilton had ‘very positive impressions’ despite a setback in Barcelona, with him set to continue this week for a Pirelli 2026 tyre test.
