Charles Leclerc has guided Ferrari to make one set-up choice that is now ‘penalising’ Lewis Hamilton

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Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur started the 2025 Formula 1 season hoping to support both of his drivers equally.

On one hand, he had Charles Leclerc, the incumbent Ferrari driver who has been supported for more than half his life by the team on his journey to F1.

On the other, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was arriving from Mercedes with all the pedigree required to believe that he could end Ferrari’s long wait to win a championship.

Fred Vasseur was never going to initially take sides, although Ferrari chiefs secretly hoped Hamilton would end up as their number one driver given how much money had been spent hiring him from the Silver Arrows.

What ended up happening after six Grand Prix weekends was Leclerc taking the lead on the development of the car due to his exhaustive knowledge of Ferrari’s procedures and processes.

Unfortunately, it’s going to take far more than a few tweaks to help either driver be in contention for a podium, let alone a race win over the next few Grand Prix.

Ferrari are in desperate need of some major updates, and it looks like they’ve followed Leclerc’s lead, which could potentially be to the detriment of his new teammate.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Charles Leclerc’s ‘completely unbalanced’ Ferrari set-up now harming Lewis Hamilton

A report from the Italian outlet Autoracer has shared more details about the decisions being made behind the scenes at Ferrari.

They highlight how Ferrari having to run the SF-25 higher than they would like is harming their performance levels.

Hamilton was disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix for excessive plank wear and Ferrari are doing everything possible to avoid a repeat of that incident.

Ferrari are now having to unload the front of the car with a ‘completely unbalanced’ set-up that gives both drivers practically no rear and a lot of oversteer.

This is Leclerc’s preferred set-up given the car’s limitations, but it’s now ‘penalising’ Hamilton and his driving style.

On top of this, it’s also forcing Ferrari to lose time in the slow corners compared to their rivals.

This is even more disturbing for Vasseur as this was an area of strength for Ferrari throughout the current era of the sport.

The report goes on to compare Ferrari’s current problems to what Red Bull faced since last season, although the new floor the team brought to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix appears to have given Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda’s cars a better balance.

Leclerc and Hamilton will hope that updates arriving soon for their cars have a similar impact.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Charles Leclerc’s brother trying to help Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

Leclerc has spent his entire career, aside from his debut season at Sauber, racing for Ferrari.

It means his driving style is intricately linked with how the team develop their cars and it’s not a surprise that even though the SF-25 has some fundamental flaws, he’s already learned a few tricks on how to get around them.

Ferrari’s car also seems particularly weak over one lap, with Leclerc and Hamilton both showing signs during the middle of races that they can unlock some impressive race pace having started further down the grid.

Hamilton is trying to adapt and re-learn processes that are ingrained in him from more than a decade at Mercedes, but he might be about to get some help from another Leclerc.

Charles’ brother Arthur Leclerc is testing Ferrari’s previous cars to help find some data that could hold the key to what’s going wrong with the SF-25.

The trouble is, the longer Ferrari take to find a solution, the less impact it’s going to have with next year’s cars requiring some very different answers.