Ferrari team principal gives his honest opinion on whether the Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc combination can win the title in 2025
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur gave an affirmative response to the team's chances of winning the title with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc next year. The seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton's switch to the Italian team has many looking forward to the next season, with two of the biggest names in the sport joining hands.
Speaking this week, Ferrari team prinicipal Frederic Vasseur was asked if the team can win the title in 2025 with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. He said (via F1.com),
"Yeah."
He added,
It's the next step we did with P3 and P2 [in 2023 and 2024], we are going in the right direction. I think we are doing the right step on the team side and on the car side and everything is going on this direction."
In the interview, he also laid out the plan in place for Hamilton to kickstart his journey with Ferrari in 2025 and added:
“We will have a couple of test days with TPC [testing of previous cars] and Pirelli [tire test running] before Bahrain. It’s a very short period. It means this will be a rush, but I’m not worried at all. He [Hamilton] is coming with experience of this. He did almost 20 seasons in F1, and he will manage perfectly this period.”
Lewis Hamilton ended his 12-year tenure with Mercedes earlier this year, activating his release clause. He now joins the Maranello-based outfit. However, Hamilton and Ferrari have had differing levels of success in the 2024 season. While the latter challenged McLaren for the constructor's title till the very last, the Brit could only managing a P7 in the drivers' standings.
Ferrari team boss gives his take on Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc dynamic
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said he was not too worried about Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc getting along as teammates, given the mutual respect between the two drivers off the track.
Vasseur said (via RacingNews365),
"Charles and Lewis, I am not particularly worried about as they have a huge mutual respect, they know each other and have been speaking about this for months. I am really convinced that the performance of the team is coming from the admiration between the two."
Charles Leclerc has spoken on several occasions about his excitement regarding racing alongside the 105-time race winner and said he intends to learn from the Brit's experience in the sport. The Monagasque driver finished the 2024 season in P3 in the driver's championship with three race wins and 356 points and was just 18 points off McLaren driver Lando Norris. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton claimed two race wins in Silverstone and Spa, he had a deficit of 22 points to his Mercedes teammate George Russell in P6.