Charles Leclerc highlights key Lewis Hamilton influence despite Ferrari struggles

Charles Leclerc has highlighted the influence Lewis Hamilton has had on Ferrari despite his on-track F1 struggles.

It’s been a disappointing campaign for Ferrari so far in 2025.

Ferrari sit fourth in the F1 constructors’ championship, 110 points behind McLaren.

They’ve scored just one podium finish in the opening five races and have failed to live up to pre-season expectations.

Hamilton, who made the switch from Mercedes for F1 2025, has struggled to get close to Leclerc on-track.

The most convincing weekend from Hamilton was in Shanghai, where he dominated the sprint race from pole position.

However, since then, Hamilton has struggled, finishing over 30 seconds behind Leclerc at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Speaking on Thursday in Miami, where Crash.net are present in the paddock,

Leclerc backed Hamilton to turn things around and spoke about the invaluable contribution the seven-time world champion has already made.

“I think it’s always very tricky when you join a new team to get on with the new systems, with the new way of working, with the new car.

“Honestly, on my side, I am fully focused on myself and trying to extract the maximum out of myself, out of the car and that’s already quite a lot of work. I am sure Lewis will get there. He’s got such a great win in China. There’s still a lot to learn but I already learned a lot from Lewis.

“It’s great to have him in the team and to challenge the way we have done things for many, many years.

“And also, again, give a fresh view of how we approach different things. So on that, we've learned a lot from him.”

Can Ferrari save their season in Miami?

Ferrari are hoping that they will be able to replicate the pace they showed in the sprint race in China as the alternative format makes a return for this weekend.

The theory behind Ferrari’s resurgence in the sprint in Shanghai was that the lower fuel level allowed them to run their car lower to the ground and thus it produced more downforce.

However, Leclerc disagreed with this theory.

“I think the very good performance of China, especially in the sprint race, has little to do with the fuel load,” Leclerc explained. “I think it's more about the sprint race is always an opportunity because you've only got one session to be straight away on the right foot in the right window of the car and if you get it wrong, there are opportunities.

“As much as there are, how do you say, chances to take the wrong choices, and then this has a big consequence. I think Lewis approached the China quali and sprint race in the perfect window, and just managed to put everything together ,when others maybe struggled a little bit more and then already from the Saturday evening, we struggled in the normal qualifying.

“I just feel like by focusing on ourselves, we've done a lot of work in the simulator, in order to be in the right window straight away. That's a target for every team, but if we manage to do that better than others, then there's definitely the opportunity for us to reproduce what happened in China, more than in a normal race weekend, where I would say it's a bit more difficult to challenge the McLaren at the moment.”