Charles Leclerc had to hold back laughter when asked one question about Lewis Hamilton at Spa

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Charles Leclerc outclassed Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton once again at the Belgian Grand Prix. Leclerc delivered a fifth podium of the season, while Hamilton is still waiting for his first.

It was the kind of weekend Leclerc has repeatedly produced in 2025 – maximising the potential of the car without attracting headlines. After a lonely drive to fourth in the Sprint, he held off Max Verstappen to lock down third in the Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, Hamilton made mistakes in both qualifying sessions, condemning him to a pair of Q1 exits. His fightback in the race was commendable, but he still only contributed six points.

Leclerc is now 30 points ahead of his teammate in the standings after the first 13 races. He leads Hamilton 22-8 in competitive sessions, firmly maintaining control of the team he joined in 2019.

Charles Leclerc amused after Lewis Hamilton talked about feedback documents at Ferrari

Hamilton is determined to avoid the fate of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, two F1 legends who won plenty of races at Ferrari but couldn’t bring the championship to Maranello. He sees himself as the man to end the team’s lengthy drought.

Speaking in the pre-race press conference, Hamilton said he’d sent several ‘documents’ to Ferrari suggesting a raft of changes. Some of these were ‘structural’, while others were specific to the car.

According to Auto Motor und Sport journalist Michael Schmidt, Leclerc had to hold back laughter when he was asked about these comments. This is apparently routine practice for an F1 driver.

“It was something that amused everyone when he said before the race that he had written a few documents and discussed with the management at Ferrari how things could be improved in the future in terms of the team structure, the car and so on,” Schmidt said.

“When Leclerc was asked if he had seen the documents, he had to bite back a laugh. He said, ‘Folks, drivers are asked by the team management, the technicians, whether they have suggestions for improvement, that is completely normal’.

“Every driver does that, they don’t just pay the drivers to drive around. They pay them to explain what they think isn’t so good and what could be done better.”

Nico Rosberg says Hamilton is pushing like ‘crazy’ behind the scenes, but Fred Vasseur needs to balance the influence of his two drivers. One is far more decorated, but the other appears to be quicker as it stands.

Is this the only weakness Charles Leclerc still has to address?

Leclerc found it ‘physically’ tiring to hold off Verstappen as he wrestled the SF-25, which was equipped with a low-downforce set-up, through the corners.

The tension of the battle was evident when he told his engineer to ‘leave me alone’, ensuring he could maintain maximum focus. Before the race, Leclerc had rebuked Bryan Bozzi for overloading him with instructions.

The Monegasque is known to be a particularly emotional driver inside the cockpit. There’s nothing wrong with being forceful with a race engineer, but occasionally, he does let his adrenaline get the better of him.

After British GP qualifying for instance, Leclerc raged at his mistakes. He’s pairing his renowned qualifying brilliance with well-executed races this season, so may just need to develop more composure to become the complete driver.