Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finds himself in an interesting position going into the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The eyes of the world are on Ferrari but he finds himself on the periphery of all the attention.
Lewis Hamilton is no stranger to being at the centre of what’s happening in Formula 1 after 17 seasons and seven world championships.
However, in Charles Leclerc, Hamilton’s coming up against one of his toughest-ever opponents even if the Monegasque driver only has eight Grand Prix wins to his name.
That’s because aside from a single year at Sauber at the beginning of his F1 career, Leclerc has spent the last six seasons honing his craft within the sport’s most successful team.
During that time he’s seen off multiple world champion Sebastian Vettel and when team principal Frederic Vasseur knew Hamilton was arriving, he wanted Leclerc to be his teammate rather than Carlos Sainz.
Vasseur has overseen a lot of change at Ferrari which has really benefitted Leclerc.
Nico Rosberg believes Vasseur was vital to Leclerc’s win at Monza in 2024 and according to journalist Matteo Novembrini, he’s also altered how he prepares for every race.
Frederic Vasseur has changed Charles Leclerc’s F1 race preparations at Ferrari
Novembrini was asked about the changes Vasseur has made after replacing Mattia Binotto and one of the areas that has been improved is how Ferrari organise their practice sessions.
When providing more details, Novembrini said: “This year, it was also seen in the operations on the track.
“So, in the methodology of the work on the track, a mentality more oriented towards the race [was created by Vasseur].
“Just see what happened in free practice. I remember Leclerc who if he made a mistake, was going around in FP2 on a Friday and asked repeatedly to try something again.
“It happened so that if a wrong lap occurred, after two attempts, they said no, now we have to try the race setup. It hadn’t always happened like this before.
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“So, this is a mentality that tried to give priority to the aspects of the race starting from Friday.
“Then, once one driver happened to make a mistake in using the wrong set – obviously nobody is perfect – but I liked to see this awareness when Vasseur arrives to say, ‘OK, Ferrari is lacking in this [understanding their own mistakes]’, and is working to eradicate a certain mindset that probably remained inside the team.
“They worked in a certain way because the team has changed some personnel, but it has not been completely overturned.”
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton already discussing Ferrari success
Leclerc is an extremely popular driver and it won’t be long before the focus is on him and not Hamilton if he starts to outperform the 40-year-old.
That won’t be easy and Hamilton will hope that being outscored by George Russell last season was a blip rather than the start of a trend.
Hamilton and Leclerc have already been discussing Ferrari’s success since last season and while they have a common goal, it’s yet to be seen how they plan on achieving that.
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Leclerc’s one-lap pace has always been extraordinary and Vasseur’s altered run plan in practice should help him improve his race performance.
If he can match the likes of Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s consistency on a Sunday, there’s no reason why the 27-year-old can’t be one of the favourites to win the 2025 title.
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