Should one of the Ferrari drivers break the team’s 18-year drought with a World title in F1 2025, it will be Charles Leclerc and not Lewis Hamilton.

That’s the opinion of former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher.

Lewis Hamilton to win No.8 in F1 2025? ‘Very unrealistic’

Joining Ferrari after 12 years and six World titles with Mercedes, much has been written, said and pontificated about Hamilton’s move to Ferrari and whether or not it will yield his eighth World title.

The Briton has not stood on top of the season’s podium since 2020, having lost the World title to Max Verstappen on the final lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

His arrival in Maranello in January dominated headlines, every minute of Hamilton’s first week in red documented as the 40-year-old begins his journey – Ferrari’s Tifosi hope – to becoming the sport’s first eight-time F1 World Champion.

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And in the background sits his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque driver has flown under the radar this pre-season with most of the world’s attention on his new team-mate and whether or not title No.8 awaits the Briton.

Leclerc, though, has no issue with that.

“I don’t think it necessarily changes something on my side,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com. “I obviously always try to focus on myself and to do everything that is in my control the best I can, to have no regrets, no matter what happened. And that’s the same approach I had this year.

“There’s more craziness and obviously more attention around the team, because Lewis is joining, and it’s really nice to see.

“But on my side, I’ve just been really focusing on trying to prepare myself the best possible way, mentally, physically, doing quite a bit of simulator to try and develop this new car in the best possible way to try and understand the first weaknesses, or first things I will feel on the simulator. So just focusing on performance, on me.

“A hard as it is t believe it’s not like I noticed so much all the craziness. I can notice it in Maranello because I can visually see all the people. And obviously there’s always a lot of people around. This year is probably even more so. But other than that, to me, I’m just focusing on things.”

But if you ask former F1 driver Schumacher, it is Leclerc and not Hamilton who has the best shot at winning the title should Ferrari be involved in the championship fight.

According to the German, Leclerc with his six years at Ferrari will be better prepared whereas Hamilton, having spent the past 12 seasons with Mercedes, may need as long as “eight months” to adapt to life as a Ferrari driver.

“If anyone will make it in the Ferrari, I somehow have the feeling that it will be Charles Leclerc,” he told the German press agency, DPA.

“When you join a new team, it takes at least six to eight months before you can use the whole environment perfectly for yourself and prove yourself in that environment, no matter what you do and how quickly you get comfortable. At least that was my experience.”

He went on to say that it is “very unrealistic” that Hamilton will become World champion this season.

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