Charles Leclerc urgently needs to find points amid Hamilton resurgence

Ferrari fans would have been forgiven for expecting a tumultuous season amid the latest regulation shake-up but nobody could have ever predicted that their 41-year-old driver would outshine his younger teammate, who is almost half his age. 

For the Tifosi, signing Lewis Hamilton last year must have felt like the cherry on top of their perfect white picket fence, with Charles Leclerc seated next to him in the paddock as their star driver. Six months before his first win in the Prancing Horse, in Barcelona recently, he suffered three consecutive Q1 exits in qualifying. At the time, it look like an embarrassing end to the most illustrious F1 career. 

Hamilton, however, is called the GOAT for a reason.

The great Brit Hamilton locked in, put his highly developed racing IQ to use and joined hands with the engineers at the Scuderia to build the 2026 car. His experience proved vital in helping Ferrari construct a race-winning machine again. Hamilton then delivered Ferrari’s first win since 2024 last month. 

So, where does that leave Ferrari’s wunderkind?

Ferrari recently announced a contract extension for the 28-year-old Monegasque and it is no secret that Ferrari think he Leclerc their future.

Leclerc even recently admitted that Hamilton is allowed to go skydiving but he cannot as per stipulations in his contract. Now trailing the joint-record seven-time world drivers’ champion by 46 points in that championship, the pressure on Leclerc must be mounting, according to former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer.

BBC pundit Palmer believes Leclerc is going through a rough patch at Ferrari, who have taken a pounding for their recent performance and results.

“Charles is a generational talent. Ever since junior formula, I’ve seen him do unbelievable things in a car. Right now he seems to be in the toughest moment of his career,” Palmer said after Leclerc’s eighth-place finish in Austria.

“His overdriving has come a little too often and this time on the other side of the garage is a man who knows how to put championship campaigns together. It amplifies the struggles for Leclerc.”

Leclerc has no other option but to respond to the pressure or risk looking inferior to his seasoned teammate. That task is almost impossible because it is against a Hamilton that has found a new outlook on his career.

As the paddock unfolds at the home of F1 in Silverstone this week for the British GP, pundits and fans will be keen to see how Leclerc answers the questions about his ability to win. Especially now that he has a car capable of doing so.

Jehran Naidoo is sports reporter for Independent Media and social media coordinator of the our YouTube channel The Clutch