They are the duo of the year, the most anticipated pair of the new Formula 1 season. One, at Ferrari since 2019, dreams of winning his first World Championship after a 2024 marked by great growth. The other, newly arrived in Maranello, will debut in red for the first time at the age of 40 after already winning seven world titles. They are Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, the drivers Ferrari will field on the grid in the new F1 season. And while questions arise about how they will coexist in the garage, technical characteristics and driving preferences moving in the same direction will ease the adaptation of Ferrari’s new duo.
Throughout 2024, it became clear that driver confidence in the behavior of their respective cars played a fundamental role. The ability to push to the limit while exploiting the car according to their driving style often made more of a difference than increases in aerodynamic load or efficiency gained from updates. It’s no surprise that, over the year, with the same car on the same track, feedback from teammates often diverged, as seen with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, as well as with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, due to their differing driving styles. What seemed to work best for one driver often caused issues for the other, and vice versa.
That Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have nearly identical driving styles is therefore of significant importance as the season approaches. Both drivers carry high speed into corner entry, delaying braking and then pressing hard on the brake pedal while initiating the turn with a very decisive steering input. From that point, they manage the car’s rotation to correct any rear instability, “communicating” with the accelerator at the apex, ready to push fully once the car aligns on exit. This trait demands a highly responsive front end at corner entry, while the resulting rear-end lightness that induces oversteer is not a problem. Both Ferrari drivers prefer an oversteering car that can be controlled mid-corner while enabling higher entry speeds. This dynamic behavior is less pronounced in modern ground-effect cars, which are typically understeering by nature. However, it can be adjusted through setup, aerodynamic concepts like load distribution, and suspension response dynamics.
For Ferrari, having two drivers with similar driving styles will be highly advantageous. This should lead to faster car setup optimization, which becomes even more critical during Sprint race weekends with less time available for setup evaluations. Development packages will also benefit from consistent feedback, enabling the team to assess their effectiveness without ambiguity. Another Ferrari driver who favored high-speed corner entry with late braking and focused on a trajectory that minimized mid-corner time to align the car earlier on exit was Michael Schumacher. His style resembles that of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. This similarity is an auspicious sign for Ferrari’s newly formed pair, already aiming in the same direction with a single goal: to win.
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