31/07/2025 07:25
Nico Rosberg has warned Charles Leclerc to be prepared for "daggers
in the heart" from Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. Leclerc is in his
seventh season as a works Ferrari driver, having graduated through
the Driver Academy, and was firmly seen as Scuderia team leader,
before Hamilton's arrival earlier this season. Given Hamilton's
status as a seven-time champion and as a big-money signing from
Mercedes, it was expected that he would be able to earn control of
the team and become the focal point, as Max Verstappen is at Red
Bull or George Russell at Mercedes. Leclerc has comprehensively
outperformed Hamilton, who remains without a grand prix podium with
one race to go before the summer break, having never failed to
finish on a podium in the first half of the season. Hamilton
recently revealed that he had written a series of dossiers as to
where Ferrari must improve, sharing these with Ferrari chairman
John Elkann, CEO Benedetto Vigna and team boss Fred Vasseur. Such
meetings are something Rosberg, Hamilton's team-mate between
2013-2016 at Mercedes, has warned Leclerc about. "There is a lot of
lobbying that you can do as a driver which would benefit you,"
Rosberg told the Sky Sports F1 podcast when asked what a driver can
do to mould the team to him and not his team-mate. "That was one of
Lewis's greatest strengths, and when I was fighting him at
Mercedes, he was really good at building strong relationships with
all the leadership at Mercedes. "Suddenly, I would find out that:
'Oh, Lewis went for dinner in Stuttgart last night with Dieter
Zetsche,' who was CEO of Daimler. "That was like a dagger in the
heart just to hear that, because who knows what they are talking
about? He was very good at that. "He will be using those skills now
at Ferrari because it never hurts to get more and more support from
the team." The article continues below. Hamilton praise from
Rosberg Rosberg also touched on Hamilton working with the
engineering team at Ferrari, and praised his former
friend-turned-team-mate-turned-rival. "It is nice to hear that
Lewis is pushing flat out, because at the moment, he could be
giving up, he could say: 'What the hell, I've done it all, why do I
need to struggle through this now again?' "But he's really pushing
on and is super committed and super motivated, which is great to
see, but it is not easy for him, as Leclerc had such a great
weekend [in Belgium], he was struggling all over the place. "Yes,
it was a great race from him, but when your team-mate finishes
third, it is tough."
