Ever since the news of Lewis Hamilton coming to Ferrari in 2025 became official last year, Charles Leclerc had been raring to partner up with the seven-time world champion. While he was not willing to let the Briton breathe easy as his teammate, Leclerc knew their dynamic would evolve quite naturally, owing to their several common interests.
The Monegasque driver always respected Hamilton and rarely had any skirmishes that went south with the Mercedes maestro when they often battled for wins and podiums in 2019. So, as Hamilton was coming to Maranello, Leclerc was keen to learn from the Briton and match his high benchmark of consistency on the track.
In the five Grand Prix weekends so far this season, the new Ferrari duo has gone well in terms of their intra-team dynamic. While the team is struggling with performance on track, Hamilton and Leclerc seem to enjoy a cordial relationship on track and are also enjoying their time together off the track.
Ahead of the Miami GP weekend, the Monegasque shed light on how their bond as teammates has evolved quite naturally, and they haven’t put in any extra effort as such.
“We got on super well before he joined the team. So, there wasn’t anything that had to be forced or worked for. It was just natural, we get on super well. We share a lot of passions outside the track as well,” Leclerc said in an interview with ESPN. In fact, he also named the three common hobbies they have a mutual interest in.
Besides racing cars at 200 mph, Leclerc and Hamilton share a liking for creating music, dabbling in the fashion industry, and playing chess. The 27-year-old has been more proactive than his teammate in creating instrumental music of his own and has even released multiple singles since 2023.
Hamilton has often been a bit hesitant to make his musical creations public. However, he is a huge fashionista and never hesitates to show his flamboyance in various outfits in the paddock, even though some may deem his fashion sense a bit outlandish.
Leclerc also wishes to emulate the Briton on this front and has teased the idea of starting his own fashion line, just like Hamilton collaborated with Tommy Hilfiger in 2018. While fans were always aware that the Ferrari duo had these passions in common, it was only this year that they also got to know of their shared liking for playing chess.
Paris Fashion Week?
No, it’s Lewis Hamilton Fashion Week #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/ili87cF9gR
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) October 5, 2023
“So we are having a lot of fun playing chess together,” Leclerc said while stating that they are also quite “competitive”. The Ferrari duo were also busy playing chess during the F1 75 event at the O2 Arena in London in February!
Recently, they had a funny incident when Hamilton tricked the Monegasque during a game of chess and won it. Both drivers were using chess engines, which are basically online tools to cheat in chess. However, it was the 40-year-old who was using the better engine, and this helped him beat Leclerc.
Lewis and Charles talking about both of them cheating in chess
Charles: “The worst thing is that the program I was using was worse than his. So I was cheating and I still lost. I went to sleep so depressed.”
Lewis: “I was laughing so hard on this flight, I was in tears. We… pic.twitter.com/S8k6NOmq2A
— sin ⁴⁴ (@44britcedes) April 12, 2025
“I was in tears. We both started cheating at the same moment. And I lied initially when he said, ‘Are we both cheating?’ I said ‘What do you mean?'” Hamilton quipped, as Leclerc hopelessly accepted that he had been fooled.
Leclerc initially thought that his chess engine program was “worse than” Hamilton’s. “So I was cheating, and I still lost, went to sleep so depressed.”
