“He Will Have to Fight for It”: Ralf Schumacher Senses Struggle for Lewis Hamilton When Going up Against Charles Leclerc

“He Will Have to Fight for It”: Ralf Schumacher Senses Struggle for Lewis Hamilton When Going up Against Charles Leclerc

Lewis Hamilton is all set to join Ferrari from the 2025 season onwards, having revealed the major news just a few days ago. While many will expect the seven-time world champion to be the leader of Ferrari, given his exploits in the sport, ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher predicts that the 39-year-old’s time at Maranello will not be easy. The former German driver expects Charles Leclerc to give Hamilton a tough time.

“When Hamilton is at Ferrari, he will try to be the team’s number 1, but I think he will have to fight for it because Leclerc has been there for a long time,” explained the six-time Grand Prix winner to Sky Germany as quoted by Soymotor.com.

After two winless seasons at Mercedes, Hamilton is keen to try and win an elusive record eighth world title with Ferrari. However, Leclerc would want to be the one to break Ferrari’s 16-year-long championship drought.

The 26-year-old will indeed be no easy teammate as many expect him to be the fastest man in terms of qualifying in today’s era. Hence, the Monegasque would do whatever it takes to upset Hamilton’s plans come 2025.

Charles Leclerc could give the ‘Sebastian Vettel’ treatment to Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

Despite the respect Charles Leclerc might have for Lewis Hamilton, the inter-team rivalry could get very tense at Maranello. 2019-2020 was the last time Leclerc was paired up with a multi-time world champion – Sebastian Vettel.

While Leclerc comfortably outclassed the German, their rivalry had some intense fallouts like in Brazil in 2019 and in Austria in 2020. In 2025, however, the priorities of both drivers would be more on curbing Red Bull than asserting their dominance within the team.

Red Bull are the favorites to beat in both 2024 and 2025, considering the dominance they have established in the recent ground-effect era. Since there will be a major regulation change in 2026, a championship battle is only likely then.

While the rule set will change for the aerodynamic departments of the teams, too, the biggest change will be with the advent of brand-new engines. With Red Bull embarking on a solo mission with Ford, a Ferrari works PU in 2026 could really change the pecking order prevalent in the sport today.

Post Edited By: Vidit Dhawan
Charles Leclerc ferrari Lewis Hamilton

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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