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Jacques Villeneuve has once again expressed concern about Charles Leclerc after Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari win in Barcelona.
Villeneuve has already suggested that Ferrari may have to make Hamilton number one driver to maximise their chances of beating the Mercedes duo in the title fight.
Leclerc’s weekend was defined by a crash in Q3 that left him tenth on the grid. He delivered a solid recovery drive to sixth place before a race-ending power steering failure, while Hamilton celebrated Ferrari’s first win since late 2024.
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Jacques Villeneuve: Lewis Hamilton was ‘supposed to be too old’ to beat Charles Leclerc
Leclerc’s new Ferrari contract has been described as a ‘near-permanent’ deal, one that could see him race for the team well into the 2030s. But Villeneuve fears that the Monegasque, who hasn’t scored a point since the announcement, may now be too comfortable.
Leclerc comfortably dispatched Hamilton last season but has now been beaten in four straight races. One theory was that he was trying to match his teammate’s late-braking approach before he found the barriers in qualifying.
Villeneuve doesn’t anticipate Leclerc getting markedly better at the age of 28 but says Hamilton should inspire him to make little ‘tweaks’ to his approach. He should be under no illusions about the internal threat he faces.
“He was just given a lifetime contract,” Villeneuve said on the F1 Show. “How does that push you? How does that put you on the edge? How does that make you feel like, ‘I need to deliver, I need to keep on going’?
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“I’m not sure that’s a positive. But ultimately, we start seeing the cracks. He could see what Lewis is doing, and it stressed him, and he tried to do it differently, instead of just accepting that maybe that weekend he was just a little bit off, and it’s okay, it’s a long season.
“There’s nothing wrong with learning from the record holder. You have Lewis Hamilton as a teammate, learn from him.
“In modern F1, you’re not young anymore at 28. It’s not just a question of age, it’s [a question of] how long has he been there? He’s been there a long, long time. He’s an extremely experienced driver.
“He’s a driver that should be at the top of his form, where you don’t get a lot better. You can still learn, like Lewis has made himself better from last year to this year. He’s been very good at that, but it’s not the big leap, the big climb that you do in your first two or three seasons.
“Leclerc has had that climb already, so now he’s settled at his level. He needs those little tweaks. He needs to learn how to build a team around him, because he’s never had to and it might just be too late.
“Now he can see that that driver who was supposed to be too old, burnt out, not quick anymore, he’s made this team his team, he’s made this car faster for himself, more difficult for me. ‘How do I react? I’ve never known how to do that.’ He had it easy with Vettel, basically.”
Leclerc partnered Vettel in his first two seasons at Ferrari, immediately beating him upon arrival. The ageing four-time champion was replaced by Carlos Sainz in 2021.
Sainz was a closer match for Leclerc, though he was ultimately outscored 1,029 to 900.5.
After back-to-back retirements, ‘Il Predestinato’ trails Hamilton by 40 points, but Ferrari expect Leclerc to win himself in the near future and start closing the gap.
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