Charles Leclerc is part of the Ferrari family but is now joined by Lewis Hamilton yet Fred Vasseur feels the seven-time champion is just who he needed as a teammate.
The Scuderia stunned the globe a year ago when Ferrari announced that Hamilton agreed to leave Mercedes from the 2025 Formula 1 season. It was the end of his largely successful 12-year spell with the Silver Arrows which yielded six of the Briton’s joint-record seven F1 titles.
Hamilton has moved to Maranello on an initial two-year contract, with the option to stay for the 2027 campaign. He will now try to build the Scuderia around him in the Stevenage-born star’s quest for an eighth crown, edging Ferrari away from Leclerc who joined them in 2019.
Fred Vasseur thinks Lewis Hamilton is ‘exactly’ the teammate Charles Leclerc needed
Red Bull chief Christian Horner is adamant Hamilton must build Ferrari around him if the 40-year-old is to fight for the F1 drivers’ championship in his first season racing in red. Yet team principal Vasseur is confident that Hamilton was the ‘perfect fit’ to partner Leclerc at Ferrari.
Vasseur wholeheartedly believes that Leclerc required a teammate like Hamilton beside him at the Scuderia. The 105-time Grand Prix is the Monegasque’s third partner since moving to Maranello, having firstly seen off four-time champion Sebastian Vettel and also Carlos Sainz.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari
Ferrari abandoned talks to gift Sainz a new contract to sign Hamilton, who has now reunited with Vasseur after winning the 2006 GP2 Series title racing with the Frenchman’s ART Grand Prix team. The maturity Hamilton now has further shown Vasseur he is who Leclerc needs.
“He’s not the same,” Vasseur has told Sky Sports. “He’s 20 years older than when we were together first and everybody is changing, improving, developing.
“For sure, he’s much more mature, much more experienced and he’s the perfect fit with the team today. That’s exactly what I was looking for. For the team, for me [and] for Charles, I think it’s the perfect combination.”
Charles Leclerc cannot let Lewis Hamilton take control after rebuilding Ferrari
Leclerc will surely strive to learn as much as he can from Hamilton at Ferrari, with the Briton boasting the F1 records for the most Grand Prix wins (105), pole positions (104) and podium finishes (202). But the 27-year-old will know he cannot see Hamilton make Ferrari his team.
READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
While Vasseur sees them as the perfect teammates, their individual aims directly clash with both drivers looking to win the title. Leclerc has also helped Ferrari re-join the leading battle in recent years to finish last season just 14 points behind McLaren for the constructors’ title.
Yet Leclerc only boasts eight Grand Prix victories and 43 podiums, along with 26 poles, in his F1 career. He will now hope to capitalise on the Scuderia’s progress, along with Ferrari using pull-rod suspension with the SF-25, to add to those. So, he cannot let Hamilton take control.
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