Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley believes Charles Leclerc will emerge as a “fully formed World Champion” if Lewis Hamilton’s influence rubs off on him in F1 2025.

And he reckons Hamilton and Leclerc could have a similar partnership to the master-and-apprentice dynamic between Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa in 2006.

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Hamilton is due to start work with Ferrari next month, having announced in February that he will join the Scuderia from Mercedes on a multi-year contract from the F1 2025 season.

The seven-time World Champion will replace Williams-bound Carlos Sainz, who has been forced to make way for Hamilton.

Leclerc has established himself as one of the fastest drivers in F1 since joining Ferrari in 2019, seeing off Sainz as well as four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, but has been limited to just eight wins in six full seasons with the Italian team.

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Hamilton, meanwhile, stands as the most decorated driver in F1 history with more than 100 grand prix wins and pole positions to his name, yet struggled for pace in F1 2024 en route to a resounding qualifying defeat by Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

It prompted Hamilton, who will turn 40 on January 7, to concede that he is “not fast anymore” at the penultimate race of the season in Qatar.

Smedley worked closely with Massa at Ferrari between 2006 and 2013, with the Brazilian enjoying a healthy relationship with team-mate Schumacher in his first season with the team before the German’s retirement at the end of that year.

Massa emerged as a title contender two years later, famously missing out on the World Championship by a single point to Hamilton in 2008.

Smedley believes Leclerc and Hamilton could have a similar partnership, with the younger man learning from his illustrious team-mate before becoming “the real deal himself” when Hamilton eventually retires.

Put to him that Leclerc is likely to be the faster Ferrari driver in F1 2025 but Hamilton could end the year with more race wins, Smedley told the Formula For Success podcast: “I would agree with that.

“I think there’s another point in that chronological trajectory as well – and please don’t hate me for saying it, because it’s just physiological – [and it’s] that Lewis starts to slow down a little bit.

“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 – look how he takes care of himself – that’s not coming anytime soon.

“But isn’t this a win-win situation for Ferrari as well? They’ve got this seven-time World Champion coming in.

“He’s going to boost Charles, because Charles is in a situation where – I don’t want to call him the young apprentice – 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 very similar stages of their career and both needing to beat each other.

“Charles has got a bit of slack here: 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. He did beat him in some races fortuitously.

“I think we’ve got a similar situation with Charles. And if Charles is not the one that gets away [by making too many mistakes and wasting his potential], then it’s just a win-win situation.

“You’ve got this seven-time World Champion, a guy who can learn off him, 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.”

Smedley’s comments come after Massa questioned Ferrari’s decision to sign Hamilton, pointing to the seven-time World Champion’s advanced age as a huge concern.

Massa likened Hamilton’s situation to that of Schumacher, who was unable to recapture his former glories following his comeback with Mercedes at the age of 41 in 2010.

He told Brazilian outlet Estadao: “If you asked me if I would hire Hamilton, as the head of Ferrari, as a driver, yes, I would, without a doubt.

“Because of the talent he has. He is one of the most incredible drivers in F1.

“But because of his age, maybe not. Because of his age, if you look at the sport, age matters.

“And we have to understand how much age is weighing on him in this situation or not.

“I’m talking about myself, these days I need to train much more physically than I used to.

“It’s much harder to recover physically after a difficult race or an intense training session.

“Age takes its toll in some areas, that’s normal.

“Age is something that has weighed negatively on several drivers, as it did for Schumacher.”

Ferrari’s signing of Hamilton has been criticised as a marketing ploy, with the company’s share price rocketing by more than 10 per cent to a new record high on the day the deal was announced last winter.

Recent rumours have indicated that Hamilton is poised to sign a personal sponsorship deal with Ferrari partner Celsius, with the non-alcoholic tequila brand co-founded by Hamilton in 2023 also linked with becoming a Ferrari team sponsor.

However, former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has played down fears that off-track motives are behind the team’s signing of Hamilton.

He told Italy’s Radio GR Parlamento: “In recent years, Ferrari’s problem had nothing to do with its drivers.

“Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are strong and Lewis Hamilton is a phenomenon, as is Max Verstappen.

“His joining Ferrari is more than just a marketing plan as he wants to end his career by still winning in the red.

‘The choice of Hamilton is of course a risk on the one hand, because you bring in a champion who has already won so much and wants to continue that at Ferrari.

“On the other hand, however, you have Leclerc, who has never won a title despite all kinds of good races.

“But it will be an interesting year for Ferrari, if we assume for a moment that they can close the gap with McLaren and start the season competitively right from the first race, that they have a car that enables the drivers to win in all conditions – and that they have a clear, communicating management.”

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