The theory of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Ferrari emerges | F1 | sport

Former engineer Rob Smedley has tipped Lewis Hamilton to turn Charles LeClerc into a “winning machine” at Ferrari before he retires. The great British driver will leave Mercedes after 12 years of glory in 2025, jumping ship to the Scuderia on a three-season deal.

He will be partnered with the prodigal but flawed son of Leclerc on the grid and will be expected to offer the Monegasque driver a very different and potentially game-changing dynamic guide with his advice than Carlos Sainz has been able to provide.

Smedley, who worked for Ferrari for almost a decade alongside Jordan and Williams, believes Hamilton’s championship-winning ways will be extinguished with the 27-year-old in what he describes as a “win-win situation”. for his former team. .

“Isn’t it a win-win situation for Ferrari? As this seven-time world champion has come, it will increase Charles,” admitted Smedley on the Formula For Success podcast.

“Charles is in this situation where he is almost, I don’t want to call him the young learner now, but he will feel a very different dynamic and a very different relationship than he felt with Carlos Sainz, for example.

“They were two teammates at the same stage of their careers, or very similar stages of their careers, they both needed to beat each other.”

Sainz is the only permanent Scuderia teammate Leclerc has met in more than two years alongside four-time champion Sebastian Vettel. After four mixed and tension-filled seasons together, a new challenge – or blessing – awaits in the form of Hamilton when he soon arrives.

Smedley continued: “Charles got a bit of slack here, didn’t he? He’s up against the seven-time world champion, it’s like, although that was a completely different situation, but it’s like Felipe Massa in 2006 against Michael Schumacher .

“He was the apprentice, and it was good that Michael beat him. Then, at the end of the year, he was actually beating him on merit, in qualifying, not in races, but he did beat him in some races fortuitous way

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

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