In an interesting interview for Italian Motorsport, Charles Leclerc touched on the arrival of his new teammate Lewis Hamilton, whom he considers to be one of the best drivers in the history of this sport, from whom he can learn a lot, but also assess his worth:
“There have been rumors for a while that Lewis could come, but you can never be sure until you have confirmation. I knew that there was a mutual interest, and in these cases it is likely that an agreement will be reached. I didn’t ask too much because that’s not my role, but I have to say that everyone in the team was very open and honest with me.”
“Fred told me [that a deal had been reached], but, I repeat, every passing day I was more and more aware that things were going in that direction. I honestly don’t remember receiving a phone call explicitly telling me that, probably because I wasn’t surprised by the deal. It was about the fact that my belief in it gradually grew until the moment of the official announcement.”
“I want to say that I am very satisfied with how I cooperated with Carlos. He is an amazing driver and we went through some very difficult times in our life together at Ferrari. He is one of the people responsible for moving forward and we have always cooperated well.”
“At the same time, when a seven-time world champion comes to you – that’s always good news, very interesting and motivating. It is interesting because I will be able to learn firsthand from one of the best drivers in the history of Formula 1, but also motivating because I am intrigued by the comparison with Lewis in the same car. Those are the two reasons why I can’t wait for this new chapter to start. However, I want to say again that I always got along very well with Carlos.”
He also referred to Ferrari’s season, which looked solid until Monaco, and then dropped significantly after that.
“I’d say that’s a good description. Before Monaco, we had a couple of evolutionary upgrades that we were bringing and all of that was in line with expectations. The base of the car proved to be very stable which helped Carlos and I get the most out of it. In Montreal, we had other problems that prevented us from achieving good results. Something has changed since Spain. We brought in some upgrades that looked good in the simulator, but on the track caused the car to bounce. In the coming races I was very aggressive with the car settings to find a solution for that, but I think I paid a very big price for that.”
“I rode qualifying with settings I’ve never experienced before and because of that I risked making mistakes. A year ago we had two races with that scenario. Then in Zandvoort we said: ‘Okay, let’s try to understand as much as possible what we have to do and what is needed, and we will come with a result. This year we did it for three or four races after the Spanish GP. It took us a bit more time than in 2023, but in the end we realized a lot and if I had to do it all again – I would do it again. If we were fighting [for wins] I probably would have focused on optimizing every weekend, but given the situation we found ourselves in I’m sure this was the right choice and the consequences will be seen throughout the rest of the season.”
Technical director for chassis development Enrico Cardile left Ferrari in the middle of the season.
“My role is to do my best on the track. Of course I will try to understand what is going on within the team, but I have 200% confidence in Fred [Vasseur’s] work. I don’t think he will be the technical director for that long! I trust him completely and I am sure that he will handle the situation in the best possible way. Also, I am absolutely sure that there will be no negative consequences for the team. The point is always in the whole team, not in a specific person.”
“Since Fred came, I think people have more responsibility. The goal is to enable everyone to give 100% of themselves, and for that to happen, the team must feel that Fred trusts them. I think he’s very good at it.”
At the end of the interview, journalists asked Leclerc what exactly happened in Austria, where the car stalled in the pit lane and could not be restarted in time:
“What actually happened… I can’t say!”
