Ferrari are preparing for the imminent arrival of Lewis Hamilton as they hope to end their growing wait for a Formula 1 world championship.
Carlos Sainz is one of the quickest drivers on the grid and it speaks volumes about his quality that Williams are seen to have secured a serious coup by signing the Spaniard for 2025 and beyond.
However, when the opportunity arose for team principal Frederic Vasseur to hire Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, he couldn’t turn it down.
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Ferrari have employed several world champions in recent years without being able to provide them with a championship-winning car.
Hamilton will hope he can go one better than Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso during their time racing for the Scuderia, but Ferrari may feel they’ve already got a champion-in-waiting within their ranks.
Charles Leclerc has had another superb season and the fact he’s still third in the Drivers’ Championship despite possessing the third-quickest car is a testament to his ability.
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His victories in Monaco and Monza were brilliant and Leclerc has recovered well from watching Sainz attain Ferrari’s only victory of 2023.
Guenther Steiner was speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast about the upcoming partnership between Hamilton and Leclerc.

Leclerc has seven victories and 26 pole positions to his name, but his statistics are dwarfed by the seven-time world champions.
However, Steiner feels that Leclerc can learn from Hamilton than just how he conducts himself on the track.
Instead, he feels that his ability to balance his commitments in Formula 1 and outside of the sport is something Hamilton excels at.
Charles Leclerc can learn how to balance life and F1 from Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari
Steiner was asked if he thinks Leclerc can rise to the challenge of racing Hamilton and he said: “I think he has got it you know.
“I think what Charles can learn from Lewis is Lewis rarely makes mistakes. He’s a very complete driver.
“He’s a very calculating, very complete driver. He’s seen so much. He has done so much.
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“But also outside of racing how he conducts himself. Still focused on racing but doing a lot of other stuff as well, sometimes you think [about] how does he do it all.
“But he’s just well prepared I think and over the years he learned that and if Charles who is a clever guy will look at it and see hey I can have this success as well.
“Driving-wise, I think Charles can pull something out of the bag as well. Driving-wise he’s not behind Lewis.
“But Lewis as a race car driver is more complete. The speed is there but he’s more complete than Charles because he’s younger and he didn’t have experience Lewis has got can learn from him.”
When Lewis Hamilton could make his first appearance for Ferrari after leaving Mercedes
Hamilton still has six races to go and he’ll be keen to add a sixth victory at the Circuit of the Americas to his collection if he can when the autumn break ends.
That’s going to be easier said than done and depends on how Mercedes’s newest round of upgrades perform.
After winning three of the four races before the summer break, Mercedes regressed and if this latest set of updates don’t work as expected, then Hamilton will struggle to end his time with the Silver Arrows in the manner he would like.
Hamilton is set to make his first Ferrari outing after the post-season test in Abu Dhabi.
The 39-year-old won’t attend the test with Mercedes either, and Toto Wolff won’t want Hamilton taking any more information than he has to with him to one of their closest rivals.
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