Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Ferrari theory emerges | F1 | Sport

Former engineer Rob Smedley has advised Lewis Hamilton to turn Charles Leclerc into a “winning car” at Ferrari before he retires. The great British driver will leave Mercedes after 12 glorious years in 2025 and join the Scuderia on a three-season contract.

He will partner the prodigal but misguided Leclerc on the grid and is expected to offer the Monegasque driver a different kind of dynamic and potentially game-changing guidance than the outgoing Carlos Sainz was able to provide.

Smedley, who worked at Ferrari for almost a decade alongside Jordan and Williams, believes Hamilton’s championship winning ways will rub off on the 27-year-old in what he calls a “win-win situation” for his former team. .

“Isn’t this a win-win situation for Ferrari? Since the seven-time world champion will come to them, he is going to support Charles,” admitted Smedley in the “Formula for Success” podcast.

“Charles is in a situation where he’s almost… I don’t want to call him a young apprentice now, but he’s going to feel a very different dynamic and a very different relationship with what he felt with Carlos Sainz, for example.

“They were two peers, both at the same point in their careers—or at very similar points in their careers—and they both needed to beat each other.”

Sainz is the only regular Scuderia teammate Leclerc has ever known, apart from his two years working with four-time champion Sebastian Vettel. After four mixed and intense seasons, a new challenge – or blessing – awaits in the form of Hamilton when he arrives soon.

Smedley continued: “Charles has relaxed a little here, hasn’t he? He’s up against a seven-time world champion, it’s kind of like, although it was a completely different situation – but it’s like Felipe Massa in 2006 against Michael Schumacher.

“He was a student, and it was okay that Michael beat him. Then, by the end of the year, he actually beat him on merit, in qualifying rather than in racing, but he still beat him by accident in some races.

“I think you have a similar situation with Charles. If Charles isn’t “the one to get away” then it’s just a win-win situation, isn’t it?

“You have a seven-time world champion, a guy who can learn from him and eventually become a real champion himself. At this point, Lewis is ready to retire and leave the stage, and now you have a fully formed world champion who will be a winning machine.”