Jolyon Palmer says it’s time Charles Leclerc started letting Lewis Hamilton past in F1 title fight

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Jolyon Palmer has doubled down on his claim that Ferrari should start prioritising Lewis Hamilton in the F1 title fight.

Charles Leclerc won the British Grand Prix last time out, emphatically ending one of his trickiest spells in F1. Hamilton finished third.

Leclerc remains 39 points behind Hamilton in the standings, with the British driver 32 back from Mercedes star Kimi Antonelli.

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Jolyon Palmer: Ferrari must recognise Lewis Hamilton is ‘the guy’

After his victory at the Barcelona GP, Palmer said Ferrari should make Hamilton number one, and he stands by those comments after Leclerc’s Silverstone win.

This wouldn’t be a permanent arrangement, but it would arguably maximise their chances of beating Mercedes given the enduring pace deficit.

It would be one of the biggest calls Vasseur has made as Ferrari team boss, only weeks after handing Leclerc a new long-term contract.

“Having him in the fight is obviously brilliant, but I still think he’s just too far away with the performance of the Ferrari,” Palmer said on the F1 Nation podcast.

“I don’t think it’s about to happen. They have signed Leclerc on a long-term deal, they obviously need to keep him happy, he’s just won a race and he’s going to be saying, ‘I’m only 39 points behind Lewis, I can still win this’, even if it seems very unlikely.

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“I was actually wondering this in the Grand Prix. There was quite a big time gap between them when they were one-two before the safety car came out.

“I was thinking, if they were to swap the positions – I wouldn’t expect them to do it, Leclerc had done everything right, he was a bit too quick for Lewis on Sunday, the gap was huge, it’s still quite early in the season – Hamilton right now would be 22 points behind Antonelli in the championship, six points up on George Russell, assuming they don’t pit under the safety car and it finishes one-two.

“If I was Antonelli, and you’ve got Leclerc working for Hamilton, I think Hamilton would be the biggest threat [for the title]. Whether or not Fred can actually orchestrate that, with two ambitious drivers, is the second part of the question, and it’s a tricky one to do.

“Logically, if I was the boss, and I had the minerals, I would say, ‘Hamilton’s the guy, we’ll give Charles Leclerc some payback another time.’

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“Tough on Charles, but he will still get chances to win, because it’s not every time he’ll be with Lewis right behind him, and he’s there for the long-term. It will bounce back.”

At the end of last season, McLaren came under pressure to prioritise Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri as Max Verstappen hunted them down. Unlike Ferrari, they were trying to defend a lead.

Eager to preserve the harmonious dynamic in the garage, it took McLaren until the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi to say they would use team orders if necessary. Perhaps Ferrari will soon face a similar dilemma.