Charles Leclerc puts Lewis Hamilton on notice with warning if Ferrari plan works

Daily Mirror

3 days ago

Lewis Hamilton is working to drag Ferrari to the front of the grid where he and team-mate Charles Leclerc would both relish a Formula 1 title battle if they get the chance
Charles Leclerc has warned team-mate Lewis Hamilton that he will become a "target" if they successfully drag Ferrari back into title contention. That is the aim of both drivers who want to become World champion while driving for the famous Italian team.
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But Ferrari are in the midst of a lengthy title drought. Kimi Raikkonen was the last driver to win the championship in 2007 and several other big names such as Fernando Alonso and four-time title winner Sebastian Vettel have tried and failed to summit the Formula 1 mountain with the team.
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Hamilton said he "refuses" to become the latest megastar to try and fail to do so. And, ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, the Brit spoke of the extra effort he is putting in behind the scenes to help the team to create a car capable of challenging for silverware in 2026.
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"I held a lot of meetings. I've called lots of meetings with the heads of the team, so I've sat with [chairman] John [Elkann], [chief executive] Benedetto [Vigna], [team principal] Fred [Vasseur]," he said. "And several meetings I've sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], with also the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year, suspension for next year – things that you want, issues that I have with this car.
"I've sent documents through the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team. Then, during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in. So, then I come in and want to address those. Some of it is structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas that we want to improve, and then the other one was really about the current issues that I have with this year's car."
If Hamilton's input helps to drag Ferrari back to the very front of the grid, then team-mate Leclerc will surely be pleased. The Monegasque has raced with the team since 2019 and, although he finished second in the 2022 championship and has won eight races in his F1 career, he has yet to be even in a real fight for title glory.
The relationship between Leclerc and Hamilton has been cordial up to now with both drivers aware that improving the team is far more important to their ambitions than beating each other to minor finishing positions. But the 27-year-old has warned that will change if they do manage to drag themselves into a title fight.
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Leclerc said: "To be honest, when you are fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth, it's not really something that interests me that much. Then, of course, when we start to fight for wins, then you look at those things a lot closer.
"But it's not really been part of my... I was just here to try and learn as much as possible from Lewis of what I could learn, what could benefit me as a driver, and then focus on myself with the target of doing the best possible job, which means beating Lewis, but not only.
"I think the main target of the team and my main target at the moment is to bring Ferrari back to the top. And, yeah, Lewis is not my target at the moment because we're not fighting for very interesting positions."