Ferrari title 'unrealistic' for Hamilton in 2025

Mar.4 (GMM) It is “very unrealistic” to think Lewis Hamilton will win the title for Ferrari in his very first season with the iconic team.

That’s the view of former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, who thinks Ferrari incumbent Charles Leclerc is the man in red to bet on in 2025.

“I don’t know why, but somehow I have the feeling that if anyone can do it in a Ferrari, it will be Charles Leclerc,” the German told DPA news agency.

At 40, seven time world champion Hamilton is now the second oldest driver on the grid, but Schumacher says there is a more important reason why the Briton is unlikely to win the championship this year.

“When you join a new team, it takes at least six to eight months until you can really use the whole environment perfectly and get to know each other – no matter how quickly you feel comfortable and no matter what you do,” he said. “At least that was my experience.”

Most insiders think it is McLaren, Red Bull and possibly even Mercedes who are actually ahead of Ferrari heading into 2025. Leclerc told Sky Italia the 2025 car “struggled with the balance” on days two and three in Bahrain last week.

“McLaren seems like a very strong car,” the Monegasque admitted, “but it is too early to say more. “We need to focus on ourselves.”

Leclerc, 27, insists that he is not worried at all about clashing with Hamilton in the same way the British driver struggled to get along with teammates Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg in the past.

“I’m not a very complicated person,” he smiled to the Belgian broadcaster RTBF. “I get along with 99 percent of the people I meet. And with Lewis, we had a great feeling from the start.”

Team boss Frederic Vasseur, however, hopes the pair are not too friendly.

“There is a very good understanding,” he said. “But there needs to be competition between them. I don’t want them to be the best of friends.

“Not enemies either, but they are competitors above all. It has to stay in that area – they have to always try to do better than the other. That’s what drives them.”