10/08/2025 15:40
Juan Pablo Montoya believes life at Ferrari will get "harder" for
Charles Leclerc as Lewis Hamilton becomes more ingrained within the
Italian team. The former Williams and McLaren driver suggested that
the more "comfortable" the seven-time F1 drivers' champion becomes,
and the more the Scuderia adjusts its car to him, the more
difficult it will be for his team-mate. Hamilton had endured a
disappointing and underwhelming first few months on track with
Ferrari. Having joined the Maranello squad to a wave of
anticipation, the partnership has thus far failed to deliver. 14
rounds into the F1 season, Hamilton is sixth in the drivers'
standings on 109 points, 42 behind Leclerc. However, the latter had
five grand prix podiums this year to the former's zero. Further
still, Leclerc has comprehensively beaten the British driver in
their head-to-heads; 10-4 in qualifying and 11-2 in grands prix
(excluding their joint DSQ in China). It has led to emotions
boiling over, particularly at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix,
where Hamilton criticised himself for being "absolutely useless"
and advocating a change in driver at Ferrari after he was knocked
out of qualifying in Q2 whilst his team-mate secured pole. However,
Montoya can see the balance of power shifting between the pair as
the season progresses. "What's really happening is that Lewis is at
a point where he wants to beat his team-mate," the seven-time grand
prix winner told AS Colombia . "He's putting in huge effort.
"Working very hard, but the car isn't to his liking. The engineers
are starting to understand, but they still don't fully grasp how
difficult this car is to drive." Hamilton has been vocal about the
aspects of the SF-25 he is not happy with and has invested
significant time in explaining that to the team. Montoya predicts
the Prancing Horse will start to tailor its development in the
105-time grand prix winner's favour. "Charles looks very quick
because he can handle the car's behaviour," the 49-year-old stated.
"I think that as Ferrari adjusts the car more to Lewis' style and
he gets comfortable, life will get harder for Charles. So far, it
hasn't been too tough for him, but we'll see."
