“When you have a fast teammate like Charles Leclerc, you can only improve” – former F1 team boss. Günther Steiner on Ferrari's 2025 F1 line-up.

Starting again from Maranello
The main goal for Lewis Hamilton in his first year as a Ferrari driver will obviously be to regularly return to the top step of the podium, with a series of victories that would allow the Englishman to secure his eighth world title. This achievement would set the absolute record for most world championships won by an F1 driver, as the former Mercedes driver shares this record with Michael Schumacher, but it will certainly not be easy for #44.

The biggest challenges
In addition to his first experience in red, the man to beat remains the four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen, along with another former team of Lewis Hamilton’s, McLaren, which has returned to the top of the world in the Constructors’ Championship. There is also another factor generating curiosity ahead of the season debut, this time related to a possible Ferrari derby between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Mutual support
However, someone who doesn’t seem at all worried about the possibility of internal clashes is the former Team Principal of Haas, Günther Steiner, who in an interview with GPBlog believes that the partnership between Leclerc and Hamilton can be beneficial for both, especially for #44: “If you’re a good driver at that level, you want the best driver as a teammate because they push you to perform at your best,” he said. “Charles can learn Lewis’s racing skills—how to do things, how to manage them—while Lewis can learn from Charles about speed, because Charles is very good on a single lap. If you get a set of data from a very fast guy, it helps a lot. If you have a slow teammate, his setup will be completely different. If you have a fast teammate, you can only improve, and Lewis has the experience in Formula 1. He makes very few mistakes, and if he does, he always takes responsibility.” – the former team principal pointed out.

Günther Steiner also understands the dissatisfaction Hamilton felt during the last season, which ended with two victories and three other podiums after a 2023 completely devoid of wins: “It’s like that for most drivers at that level, especially for Lewis, who has won seven championships. You can’t be happy with just scoring points,” he concluded.