Charles Leclerc agrees with Lewis Hamilton about the one-sided teammate battle at Ferrari

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Ferrari’s intra-team battle was expected to be close in 2025. Charles Leclerc is widely regarded as one of the fastest drivers in F1, but he was now coming up against the most successful driver ever in Lewis Hamilton.

As it turns out, it’s been anything but. Hamilton could win the last two races and the Qatar Sprint, with Leclerc failing to score every time, and he’d still be 16 points behind in the championship.

The head-to-head makes for even bleaker reading. Leclerc has dispatched Hamilton 17-5 in qualifying, and 16-3 in the races both drivers have finished.

There was a school of thought that Leclerc, supreme over one lap, may have the edge on a Saturday before Hamilton struck back over a full race distance. If anything, the Monegasque’s advantage has been even more pronounced on long stints.

‘I know it works at Ferrari,’ says Charles Leclerc after dominating Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton was asked about the deficit to Leclerc – the largest of his F1 career – in the press conference ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix. He puts it down to his teammate’s comfort inside Ferrari.

“He’s been here for seven years,” said the 40-year-old. “For me, it is a new environment and a new team to get used to.”

Leclerc will overtake Kimi Raikkonen for second place on the all-time list of Ferrari appearances at the start of next season. His first outing in red came at the 2019 Australian GP, but he’d already been part of their academy set-up since 2016.

Leclerc says Hamilton has had to adjust to a ‘completely different’ environment this year, whereas ‘everything feels very natural’ on his side of the garage.

“I don’t really have any advice to give him, but it’s for sure a long process whenever you join a new team,” he said on Thursday.

“It’s been eight years that I’m in Ferrari, so I know how it works and 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.”

Charles Leclerc called Lewis Hamilton the GOAT – but where is that driver?

During the Vegas weekend, Leclerc said Hamilton has a ‘really good relationship’ with Ferrari and played down talk that he was ‘struggling to find his place’.

Leclerc regards Hamilton as the greatest F1 driver ever, but he certainly hasn’t come up against the best version of the Briton this year. In fact, he had more trouble up against Carlos Sainz.

Now, he finds himself having to defend Hamilton’s underwhelming form to the media, just as George Russell did last year.

2024 was already the worst season of Hamilton’s F1 career, but virtually nobody in the paddock would have expected a podium-less debut season at Ferrari.