Did Ferrari make a sporting mistake by choosing to sign Lewis Hamilton? And why do many believe that Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were actually the perfect pairing? These are the questions being asked after the team’s difficult 2025 season.
So far, the arrival of Lewis Hamilton has not delivered the sporting results that Ferrari expected. The partnership between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, had proven to be an effective balance for the Scuderia. Many fans and experts are now questioning whether replacing Sainz with the seven-time world champion was truly the right move.
The 2025 campaign has been anything but easy for Ferrari. The team started the season with clear title ambitions, but those hopes quickly faded after the opening races. Lewis Hamilton has not brought to Maranello what many had anticipated, and some observers argue that it was a mistake to pair Leclerc with the British veteran, removing Sainz, who had been more valuable to the team’s overall balance.
The debut of Lewis Hamilton in red inevitably fell short of expectations. The move was described as the transfer of the century, but so far the seven-time world champion has struggled to reproduce the brilliance of his Mercedes years. However, the blame does not fall entirely on the British driver, since the Ferrari SF-25 has revealed multiple shortcomings and a difficult handling that made his adaptation more complicated. Yet some believe that the arrival of Hamilton disrupted the harmony that previously existed inside the Maranello garage.
Sainz and Leclerc were perfect because…
“When Leclerc was paired with Sainz, the team reached a higher level of performance than in recent years. Ideally, you want every driver to provide engineers with different input. I believe Leclerc is a driver with instant reactions. Incredibly fast, pushing the car to its limits, but I am not convinced his feedback guides the engineers in the direction they need to go. I think Sainz is more of a leader with his feedback, and when they were both at Ferrari, both aspects were taken care of.”
These were the words of former driver Derek Daly, speaking to RacingNews365. His analysis might well have some merit, but from our perspective, it is still difficult to draw definitive conclusions. The simple fact is that the only point of comparison is the SF-25, a car that was poorly designed from the start. Therefore, regardless of the feedback provided by Leclerc or Hamilton, the outcome would have changed very little. Even Carlos Sainz would not have been able to alter the situation significantly. A comparison between Sainz and Hamilton therefore cannot be truly made, especially since everything will change next season, along with the drivers’ feeling and feedback with the car.
“Leclerc was so quick, he pushed Sainz, and Sainz was so good at helping to develop the cars that together they had a fantastic combination. I do not believe Ferrari still has this. I think now both drivers are reaction-based, incredibly gifted and fast, but I believe the team has lost the value Sainz brought to the engineers to keep improving the car.” These were Daly’s final words on the matter. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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