The battle between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari is set to be one of the biggest talking points during the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Ferrari won’t want to favour either driver over the other at the beginning of the campaign but may be forced into a decision if either Lewis Hamilton or Charles Leclerc opens up a significant lead in the championship.
Both drivers will go into 2025 with the aim of winning the drivers’ championship.
Leclerc ended last season as arguably the most in-form driver on the grid, with Anthony Davidson describing Leclerc’s performance in Abu Dhabi as epic after making up 16 positions from the back row of the grid to finish on the podium.
Hamilton’s recovery drive in Abu Dhabi was also praised, although both drivers will hope that they can start the majority of this season’s Grand Prix from much closer to the front.
The 2025 F1 season is expected to be extremely close, with the grid converging at the end of the current set of regulations.
Drivers are likely to be split by hundredths of a second during qualifying unless someone has discovered a loophole in the rules that others haven’t spotted.
Leclerc could have an advantage over Hamilton in qualifying due to his electric one-lap pace and the seven-time world champion’s struggles with the ground-effect cars that he dealt with last season.
A report from Corriere dello Sport suggests that Leclerc might also have another edge over Hamilton that the Brit won’t be able to improve on the track.
Charles Leclerc’s understanding of Italian gives him ‘unbridgeable’ advantage over Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton has spent his entire career racing for McLaren and Mercedes, two British teams that were linked even before he made the move in the winter of 2012, meaning he was already aware of some of the processes in place at the Silver Arrows before his debut.
Ferrari’s culture is completely different to what he would have experienced before and although they mainly communicate in English, the team is proud of its Italian roots.
The report from CdS suggests that Leclerc has a ‘large, indeed unbridgeable’ advantage over Hamilton due to his understanding of Italian.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
They believe it’s an ‘important’ tool for communicating within the team, although Hamilton is ‘intensively’ learning Italian behind the scenes.
In fact, Hamilton delighted Ferrari staff by addressing them in Italian at a recent meeting, even if he was reading the speech off his phone.
Showing that he’s putting in the effort will make a lot of difference, but ultimately, there’s only one person within the team that Hamilton needs to nail his communication with once the season starts.
Lewis Hamilton sought Sebastian Vettel’s advice before Ferrari move
Hamilton spent more than a decade working alongside Peter Bonnington at Mercedes as his race engineer.
Mercedes blocked Hamilton from approaching Bonnington to follow him to Ferrari, meaning that he will have a new engineer to listen to over the radio in 2025.
Instead, Hamilton will be working with Riccardo Adami this year, who previously worked alongside Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
Hamilton asked Vettel for his opinion of Adami before signing for Ferrari and it must have been positive given he’s stuck with Adami for 2025.
Both drivers, according to CdS, want the same thing from their cars, which should make developing their machines in the future much easier.
If it can help deliver the team a potential championship, then it will be the small margins, such as precise communication, that could make all the difference.
