Charles Leclerc sees no difference in Lewis Hamilton from first Ferrari F1 year

Charles Leclerc says he has not noticed a major change in team-mate Lewis Hamilton ahead of his second Formula 1 season with Ferrari.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton endured a frustrating and disappointing debut season at Ferrari in 2025, as he failed to finish on a grand prix podium for the first time in his F1 career.

But Hamilton has been in a much more positive mood during pre-season testing and was buoyant about his and Ferrari’s chances when speaking to media ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

“I believe in what my myself and rediscovering myself was really a big part of it as well. I kind of like lost sight for a second of who I was, and that person's gone, so you won't see that person again,” Hamilton defiantly said on Thursday in Melbourne.

But Leclerc has not observed a big shift in Hamilton despite the 41-year-old’s supposed reset, and believes his team-mate is “just super excited” about the upcoming campaign.

"Whether I see Lewis in a different place, I don't. I think he's just super excited,” said Leclerc, who soundly beat Hamilton in 2025, finishing one place and 86 points ahead of the Briton during their first season as team-mates.

“He was super excited to join the team last year, and he's super excited for these new cars to arrive, just like I am.

“So there's a lot of excitement really, to start this first race on the right foot and a lot of work also behind the scenes from both of us, but also for the whole team to try and arrive as ready as possible for this season.”

On his own mindset heading into the season, Leclerc, who won the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, added: "I'm quite neutral going into this season. I’ve had quite a few years with the team now, and I know what it's like. To be driving for Ferrari is very, very special, but with that also comes a lot of noise and sometimes expectations that don't really reflect the real picture so I don't really have any expectations for now.

"I just go day by day. I try to do the best possible job and I hope that this means that on Sunday we are here celebrating the first win of the season but if not, we'll take it from there and try to work from that.”

Leclerc is also expecting several unknowns in the first race of F1’s new era.

"It's going to be an interesting race because over the years with the cars we've had before, which were a little bit more traditional, every time we did a change of regulation, we tested every scenario before getting to the first race,” he said.

"With these kinds of cars there are still quite a few scenarios that are unknown, like safety car restarts, all these kinds of things that you cannot really reproduce that might give us a few surprises so I'm looking forward to that."