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Charles Leclerc has emphatically banished any notion that Lewis Hamilton is Ferrari’s ‘messiah’, Davide Valsecchi says.
After pulling off perhaps the biggest transfer in F1 history in 2024, Ferrari hoped Hamilton would be the driver to end their lengthy title drought. They haven’t won either championship since 2008.
But the evidence so far suggests that Ferrari-era Hamilton is past his peak. He has only scored one podium in his 28 starts for the team, compared to nine for Leclerc in the same period.
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Charles Leclerc has proven that Lewis Hamilton is not Ferrari’s ‘messiah’ after all
Speaking to Formula1.it, former GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi said Leclerc’s performance against Hamilton proves that he ‘deserves to win the world championship’.
Accounting for all of the competitive sessions in which both drivers have been classified since the start of last season, Leclerc leads the head-to-head 51-16.
The two Ferrari drivers were involved in some thrilling battles at the start of the 2026 season, but Valsecchi fears the glimpse of a ‘combative’ Hamilton was short-lived.
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He said: “He had Hamilton who, okay, maybe is a little towards the end of his career, but he’s still beating him, even though when Lewis arrived, it seemed like the messiah had arrived.
“I say that Leclerc, in my opinion, deserves to win the world championship more than many others. It’s a shame he hasn’t had a real chance yet.
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“I am convinced that this duel between the two will no longer exist. It seemed to me that the atmosphere of a combative Hamilton who liked the regulations is already over.”
‘They signed him old’ – Davide Valsecchi was already worried about Lewis Hamilton
No F1 driver has won the title in their 40s since Bruce McLaren back in 1966. Only nine quadragenarian drivers have even won a race, and the last of those was Nigel Mansell in 1994.
There were arguably warning signs for Ferrari in Hamilton’s last Mercedes season, when he was comfortably dispatched by George Russell, particularly in qualifying.
Valsecchi was pleasantly ‘surprised’ by Hamilton in Australia and China, where he finished fourth and third respectively, but he expects Leclerc to dominate the intra-team battle from here, given his clear pace advantage in Japan and Miami.
He said: “When they signed him, I thought: ‘Ouch, in the last two or three seasons, he’s struggled with Russell.
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“He won his last world championship at 35 and joined Ferrari at 40. I thought: I think they signed him old. Last year, he was destroyed by Leclerc.
“Now that the regulations have changed, I thought the young drivers would have an advantage, given that they were used to always changing cars from one category to another, not someone who has been in F1 for twenty years.
“And instead, he surprised me because in the winter tests and in the first two races, he actually seemed faster than Leclerc.
“Looking at the last two races, however, it seems to me that he has already fought less with Charles. I feel like there won’t be much of a fight because Leclerc will beat him every time, like last year. But this is just my feeling and we’ll have to verify it on the track.”
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