Yesterday at 09:15
Three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish has warned Lewis Hamilton
that Ferrari is "Charles Leclerc's house", with time needed to make
adjustments to suit his style. The seven-time world champion has
endured a tricky start to life at Ferrari, particularly as he has
failed to claim a podium in the first half of the season. A sprint
pole was converted into a sprint victory in China; however, fourth
in Imola, Austria and Silverstone are his best grands prix
results. On the other side of the garage, Leclerc has secured four
podiums in the opening 12 rounds and has scored 16 points more than
the 40-year-old. Moving to Ferrari was never expected to be simple
for the 105-time race winner, who found himself as Mercedes' leader
for over a decade. As a result, things were often done in his
preference and to his style, something yet to happen at the
Maranello-based outfit. Similarly to how Hamilton was raised by
Mercedes through his junior career, Leclerc has been nurtured and
looked after by Ferrari since a young age. He has been viewed as
its golden child and is in his seventh season racing for the
Prancing Horse. Because of that, the Ferrari garage has very much
been Leclerc's in recent years, representing an unusual environment
for Hamilton. "I think Charles is one of the fastest drivers in the
grid," McNish said on the latest episode of the RacingNews365
podcast. "You are going into Charles' house, to some extent, he
knows where everything is, who does what. "He's been there. He's
grown up there. He grew up there before he was in Formula 1. If you
remember, he was part of their academy programme. "So it was
always, and it doesn't matter about Lewis' seven world titles, it
was always going to take time to get up to speed. And you've seen,
I would say, the flashes of Lewis as we know and what he can do,
and it's about trying to get the environment round about him that's
consistent. "Doesn't seem that the communications always 100%
between him and his engineer. I'm not sure if that's just excerpts
of radio communication to create the story, but sounds like
sometimes that. "There's an alignment, but that will come with time
as well, because the engineers have to understand what the driver
wants, when he wants it, how he wants it, and obviously we hear the
end result of it, but I think Lewis is going to have to fight
pretty hard." Check out the latest episode of the RacingNews365
Podcast below or by clicking here!
