News broke early Thursday that Lewis Hamilton may be making a move to Ferrari from the 2025 season (and some italian outlets even suggest that it will happen as soon as this year). While many seem excited, what does it mean for Charles Leclerc?

There’s no doubt that Hamilton is a far more experienced driver, having joined Formula 1 full time in 2007 and winning 7 World Championships since then.

But Leclerc’s no rookie. He joined the sport in 2018 and has been with Ferrari since 2019. He also enjoyed teaming up with Sebastian Vettel, a 4-time World Champion who many saw as the Monegasque’s “racing fatherly figure.”

However, things changed in 2021 when Vettel left Ferrari and was replaced by Carlos Sainz. Until then, Leclerc had clearly been a “number 2,” as he was new in the Scuderia and his teammate clearly had more prestige. But a new multi-year contract, which contrasted heavily with the commitment the Maranello-based squad expressed to Sainz initially, made it clear that the Monegasque was the Prancing Horse’s fresh bet for a championship win.

Fast forward to 2024, and Ferrari have re-signed Leclerc in a new “multi-year” contract but stayed silent so far about Sainz’s future with them, and fans have been eager to know the Spaniard’s fate, with many wanting him to stay.

So, the main question is how the team dynamic will work if Hamilton moves to Ferrari. It’s no secret that Leclerc is the number 1, but it’s also widely known that the British driver has been wanting to break Michael Schumacher’s record of 7 Championships for some years already.

But we have to look at all possibilities. Perhaps Hamilton has given up his hopes of becoming an 8-time champion and instead would take an “advisory” role at Ferrari – that is, guiding the team through a new path to success.

Or perhaps that’s wrong, and Hamilton will join the Scuderia with hopes of improving the team and achieving his record-breaking goal, possibly much to Leclerc’s discontent.

Whatever the mission, we know that Formula 1 drivers can’t settle for less than victory. No team orders are going to change that. Friction will always be present.

So one only can ask how Ferrari is going to manage two incredibly talented drivers -one young, and one with a lot of experience- that are eager, and are capable of, taking the spot that’s only reserved for the best out of the 20 on the grid. And they always struggled with that. The we never able to make a clear comparison between which driver is prioritized in case of a title fight, for example. We’ve seen it in the past.

But it’s not all about the drivers

We also have to consider Ferrari’s clear path to recovery. They finished third last season behind Mercedes by 3 points, and let’s not even mention Red Bull’s dominance, having claimed the season with 860 points.

Many argue that Hamilton moving to Ferrari is a downgrade, but it’s been made public multiple times that the British driver found frustration with Mercedes, and felt like his feedback hasn’t been heard enough by the Toto Wolff-led squad.

Additionally, it remains to be seen what progress the Scuderia has made over the winter break, and how they will perform at the first race in Bahrain at the end of the month (although we also have pre-season testing before, but we know we can’t rely on it much) and throughout the season, should Hamilton join them in 2025.

Update: The news have been confirmed by Mercedes that Lewis Hamilton will depart the team in 2025.