Charles Leclerc has more ‘experience’ overcoming key Lewis Hamilton problem with Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car

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Ferrari suffered a dismal end to the Hungarian Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc was forced to concede victory and drop out of the podium places.

Leclerc had led the race for most of the 70 laps from Oscar Piastri, but during the final stint, he suffered a dramatic loss in performance in his Ferrari.

As the Monegasque driver started to lap nearly three seconds slower than Lando Norris, who had converted to a one-stop strategy and won the race, he vented his frustration over team radio and claimed Ferrari hadn’t listened to him.

“I would have found a different way of managing those issues. Now it’s just undrivable. Undrivable. It’s a miracle if we finish on the podium,” said Leclerc.

Leclerc’s prediction came true in the closing stages of the race when George Russell overtook him for third, while the FIA Stewards handed the Ferrari driver a penalty for erratic driving.

It was a contrasting weekend between Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who finished in 12th and was highly critical of his performance when speaking to the media. Discussing how it panned out for the pair, journalist Julianne Cerasoli explained why Leclerc is currently outclassing Hamilton in the races.

Charles Leclerc has more ‘experience’ than Lewis Hamilton overcoming problems

Hamilton was downbeat when speaking to media in Hungary, claiming that he was “useless” after qualifying and that Ferrari should seek out another driver.

They were strong comments coming from the seven-time world champion, but Cerasoli explains how Leclerc has more experience in one key area that is helping him better in the races.

“The two drivers can’t set up the car the way they’d like and that’s where Leclerc’s experience of knowing how to overcome problems comes into play. And even Hamilton has talked about this a few times, that the setup Leclerc uses is crazy,” said Cerasoli.

“If it’s crazy, it doesn’t make any sense, and that he was trying a different approach and they were getting closer to converging at some races, but it wasn’t an easy path. In that race at Hungary, Hamilton changed his setup a lot throughout the weekend and this doesn’t help in qualifying.

“He gets to qualifying and Leclerc scraps through to Q3 but Hamilton doesn’t, but all the frustration of things he’s trying and isn’t working comes into play and then he makes those surprising statements.”

Mystery over Ferrari’s Hungarian Grand Prix problems

Leclerc’s radio message was clear to Ferrari as he expressed frustration over them changing key elements of his car setup without consultation.

Russell suspected Ferrari was playing around with the tyre pressures and using lower engine modes to help compensate for an inherent problem they have with plank wear.

Both Leclerc and Hamilton were disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this year because of excessive plank wear, and ever since, the team has been wary of the issue.

Hamilton was told to lift and coast early into the Hungarian GP, while Leclerc was told the same thing in Austria, which prevented them from challenging McLaren.