Leclerc highlights ‘super positive’ change at Ferrari with Hamilton ‘arriving at the right time’

Charles Leclerc believes that Ferrari have adopted a “super positive” change in learning to focus on themselves rather than being affected by external noise surrounding the team, something that he feels has been timed well amid the arrival of Lewis Hamilton.

After the Scuderia unveiled their 2025 car in February, Leclerc suggested that Hamilton had joined the outfit at “the right time” as he praised Team Principal Fred Vasseur for maintaining a “very good” emotional level within the squad.

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When asked about these comments during pre-season testing in Bahrain – and how different the team’s ability to stay focused is now in comparison to previous years – Leclerc answered: “A huge amount.

“I felt like in the past maybe we were a little bit more affected by what was going on around the team, and obviously a huge amount is going [on] around the team at the moment with Lewis joining.

“I feel like now we are a lot less affected by that, or at least we don’t really look at the news anymore and we’re just focusing on the job, so this is super positive.”

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Following the announcement back in February 2024 that Hamilton would move to Ferrari on a multi-year deal in 2025, anticipation had long been building over the start of the Briton’s first season with his new team.

Pushed on how this campaign ranks in terms of pre-season excitement – with it being Leclerc's eighth year in the sport – the Monegasque reflected: “There is a huge amount of excitement around the team, of course, with Lewis joining the team.

“I think that brought a lot of hype around the team, but the good thing is that within the team nobody has been affected by it and we’ve been really focusing on our performance and the way we have to work.

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“This is our priority, this is where we should focus and not [on] whatever is being said around the team – that won’t help us. We are just trying to focus on ourselves, we’ve done all the tests we wanted to do, which is positive, but there is still a lot of work to do before the first race.”