Ferrari’s ‘win-win’ situation with Leclerc and Hamilton in bold ‘slow down’ claim

Former Ferrari and Williams senior figure Rob Smedley believes Ferrari is in a “win-win” situation for F1 2025 as Lewis Hamilton arrives to partner Charles Leclerc.

With just three races left in F1 2024, Carlos Sainz will depart Ferrari after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to make way for the arrival of Hamilton as the seven-time F1 World Champion departs Mercedes for the Scuderia.

Rob Smedley: Lewis Hamilton won’t trounce Charles Leclerc

Hamilton will partner the established Leclerc at Ferrari in F1 2025, a formidable challenge for the British driver as the Monegasque – although not yet a World Champion – is one of the most highly-rated and well-rounded drivers on the grid.

Leclerc is a product of the Ferrari junior programme and became the defacto team leader after outperforming four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel in 2019 and ’20, and is well-loved within the walls of Maranello.

Rob Smedley, a former leading figure within Ferrari’s hierarchy as race engineer to Felipe Massa, appeared on the Formula For Success podcast to discuss what may lie ahead for Hamilton and Leclerc next season, with podcast host Eddie Jordan suggesting that Hamilton won’t be going in thinking that he can beat Leclerc with ease – an opinion shared by Smedley.

“I don’t think that Lewis will go in there with that attitude. I think that Lewis is a true professional,” he said.

“He knows how good Charles is, but he will also back himself to beat him over 24 races.

“I think he will [beat him]. I think there’ll come a point when he won’t be able to do that anymore, but it’s certainly not now. The guy’s so fit, he’s so mentally strong when he’s motivated.

“What we’ve seen with Lewis over these last couple of years is… I don’t want to call it a lack of motivation, because that would be disrespectful to the guy, but I think we’ve seen every now and again, some frustration that comes through in him not being able to then deliver at 10 tenths like he has done in the past.

“But there’s no doubt about the amount of passion that this guy has and how much he wants to win. Look at his reaction after the British Grand Prix this year, that tells you everything you need to know, right?

“This is a guy that hasn’t won for years, and then he comes back and he wins, it was just like a masterclass in Lewis Hamilton, seven times world champion, how to win a race. A super impressive drive.

“You saw the passion at the end, you saw the emotion. This guy wants to win, and, with anybody who’s done really well in life, there’s also a certain amount of humility where you’re constantly looking inward and thinking, ‘What do I need to do better?’

“So I don’t think Lewis is going to go to Ferrari and think that he’s going to be able to trounce Charles, because I don’t think he will be able to because it just won’t be that easy, because Charles is a great peddler.

“But I believe he will work very hard, I think he’ll integrate himself into the team, and I think that will be the making of the next stage.”

Podcast co-host David Coulthard said he reckons Leclerc will have the edge in terms of pace over Hamilton, but the risk is there that Leclerc’s tendency to make high-profile mistakes could become his legacy.

“I think Charles will be, on average, quicker,” the Scot said, “but I think that there’s a real chance that Lewis will piece together more victories until Charles either is the final product of a world champion and he becomes that man who just suddenly starts doing the sort of performances year in, year out that we’ve seen from Lewis or Michael [Schumacher] or Ayrton [Senna], or whoever your favourite driver is.

“Or he’ll be what’s considered the one that got away – quick, brilliant to watch in qualifying, but makes too many mistakes.”

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Rob Smedley: Lewis Hamilton/Charles Leclerc ‘win-win’ for Ferrari

Smedley said he agreed with Coulthard’s perspective and said that, while the challenge ahead for both drivers is massive due to the talents of their teammate, it’s a “win-win” situation for Ferrari.

“There’s another point in that chronological trajectory as well because it’s physiological,” he said.

“It’s that Lewis kind of starts to slow down a little bit, and when that is, we don’t know – it’s definitely not in the next year or two because if you look at how psychologically strong he is, how motivated he is, how physically fit the guy is, that’s not coming in anytime soon.

“But isn’t this a win-win situation for Ferrari as well?

“Because they’ve got this seven-time world champion coming in, he’s going to boost Charles because Charles is in a situation where he’s almost… I don’t want to call him the young apprentice now, but he’ll feel a very different dynamic and a very different relationship to what he felt with Carlos Sainz, for example, where they were two peers, both at the same stages of their career, or very similar stages of their career, and both needing to beat each other.

“Charles has got a bit of slack here, right? He’s up against a seven-time world champion. It’s a completely different situation, but it’s like Felipe Massa in 2006 against Michael Schumacher.

“He was the apprentice, and it was alright that he got beat by Michael, and then, by the end of the year, he was actually beating him on merit in qualifying – not in races, but he did beat him in some races fortuitously.

“I think we’ve got a similar situation with Charles. If Charles is not the one who gets away, then it’s just a win-win situation, isn’t it? You’ve got this seven-time world champion, a guy who can learn from him and eventually become the real deal himself.

“By this point, Lewis is ready to retire and exit stage left and now you’ve got this fully formed World Champion who’s going to be a winning machine.”

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