Fred Vasseur will be impressed by one gesture Lewis Hamilton has already made for Charles Leclerc

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc create arguably the strongest and most exciting driver pairing on the 2025 grid.

The seven-time champion has had to wait almost a year to adorn the colours of F1’s most successful team. Now the move is official, Hamilton has already had an incredible impact on the team.

Hamilton has been learning Italian since moving to Ferrari from Mercedes – something Michael Schumacher always avoided. Team principal Frederic Vasseur says Hamilton has brought ‘mega enthusiasm’ to the team over the winter.

The 40-year-old is more motivated than ever to make his stint at Ferrari successful after suffering the lowest finish of his career in 2024. But Hamilton will face a tough challenge going up against Leclerc, who is well-established with the Maranello outfit.

Ferrari chiefs want Hamilton to be number one in the team in 2025, setting up an exciting battle between the Brit and the Monagasque driver this season.

There will certainly be some concerns that the intra-team battle between Hamilton and Leclerc could produce an internal rivalry – similar to what the former had with Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg in the past.

But the pair seem to be getting on well at the moment – and one gesture Hamilton recently showed to Leclerc will delight team boss Vasseur.

Lewis Hamilton woke up early to join Charles Leclerc for his morning SF-25 test at Fiorano

Hamilton made his first public appearance as a Ferrari driver at the F1 75 launch event for the 2025 liveries. Vasseur says Hamilton was ’emotional’ at the event as he received an incredible reception from the crowd.

Mere hours later, Ferrari were back in Italy to give the SF-25 its first shakedown at the team’s private Fiorano circuit. Leclerc took the car in the morning while Hamilton got behind the wheel in the afternoon.

Speaking with Lawrence Barretto on F1’s official YouTube channel, Hamilton said the team landed in Italy at 4am. Leclerc stated that he had only had two and a half hours of sleep before having to jump into the 2025 Ferrari.

Hamilton was not due to step into the car until later in the day, allowing him to catch up on sleep before the sleep. However, the Brit decided to stay up with Leclerc.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

“It’s been crazy. We landed at 4am, or just before 4am this morning and Charles was in the car first,” he said.

“But I was like: ‘I’m going to make sure I’m up so Charles is not just the only one taking the brunt of the lack of sleep.”

This is fantastic to see already from Hamilton. The Brit has had great relationships with teammates in the past such as Valtteri Bottas and George Russell – and it appears he is looking to strike the same rapport with Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton was slower than Charles Leclerc during his first SF-25 test

Like Hamilton’s first test for Ferrari back in January, thousands of fans turned up at Fiorano to watch their driver test the SF-25. Hamilton simply wrote ‘Grazie Tifosi’ on social media as he thanked the Ferrari faithful for the support.

Hamilton went 0.8 seconds slower than Leclerc during the test in the 2025 challenger. While the Brit will not want to repeat that in the season opener in Melbourne, the reason may be down to Ferrari not wanting him to push the car after Leclerc stopped on track during his session.

Leclerc almost broke the Fiorano track record set by Schumacher during his run – an impressive feat from the Monagasque driver. The 27-year-old will be looking to carry that into pre-season testing in Bahrain and the Australian Grand Prix in March.

But Leclerc will not have it easy against Hamilton who is invigorated ahead of the 2025 season. The 40-year-old will be gunning for his eighth world championship with Ferrari.

Nigel Mansell hopes Hamilton can win in Melbourne in what would be a ‘dream come true.’ The Brit grabbed a podium on his F1 debut at the track in 2007 – he will certainly look to, at the very least, repeat that feat.