How Charles Leclerc privately reacted to hearing that Ferrari wanted to sign Lewis Hamilton for 2025

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It’s safe to say that Charles Leclerc has had the measure of Lewis Hamilton for the majority of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

The Briton’s debut season with Ferrari hasn’t gone as planned, and the SF25 has proven to be a tricky car to handle.

They’re still in the fight for second in the constructors’ championship, but will need a big push from both drivers across the final 10 races.

Hamilton is the man with the most room for improvement and is still awaiting his first podium with the team. No one wants to earn a trophy for the Scuderia more than he does.

Ahead of the season, Ferrari made a ‘trusted’ promise to Hamilton that they would deliver a ‘top car’ to him, but have failed to come good on it so far.

Hamilton will be surprised by one Mercedes comparison at the summer break, looking back on how his 2024 campaign compares. Evidently, there’s room for improvement for 2026.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton F1 move ruled out despite tough start to Ferrari career, ‘can’t see that happening’

Charles Leclerc privately reacted positively to hearing Ferrari wanted to sign Lewis Hamilton

James Hinchcliffe insists ‘no one agrees’ with Hamilton after he admitted that his skills were ‘useless’ at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He became the first four-time or more champion since Alain Prost in the 1993 iteration of the Budapest race to finish lower than 10th.

Teammate Leclerc took pole position and was in contention for victory, in stark contrast, and looked promising all weekend.

ESPN’s Nate Saunders has now revealed how the Monegasque driver privately reacted to hearing that Ferrari wanted to sign Hamilton in the first place.

“He was actually kind of lobbying quite hard when he heard that John Elkann wanted to bring Lewis Hamilton to the team and that Fred Vasseur wanted it,” he said.

“They were a bit like, ‘Oh, do we want to put Hamilton and Leclerc together, two star drivers?’ And then Leclerc heard about it, and he told them both, ‘Absolutely, bring them in. I want to. How am I going to know how good I am as a driver unless you put me alongside Hamilton?'”

READ MORE: Charles Leclerc offers Ferrari a ‘natural’ ability that Lewis Hamilton has struggled to copy in 2025

Why Fred Vasseur was ‘really angry’ with one rumour surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 car

Ferrari took a gamble over the winter to drastically change the concept of a car that fell just 14 points short of a title, and it backfired.

Since then, they have been left trying to bring upgrades to the SF25, which has had troubles with braking and in high-speed corners.

Promisingly, recent upgrades appear to have helped Leclerc to extract some more performance, and with more track time, his teammate should be able to as well.

Team boss Fred Vasseur was ‘really’ angry with one rumour which suggested that the team’s technical director, Loic Serra, was doing a bad job with Hamilton’s 2025 car. He thinks that things will improve.