Ferrari, what a turnaround between Leclerc and Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton faced several criticisms for his fourth place at Silverstone in 2025 behind Nico Hülkenberg. Certainly, the Briton matched his best result of the season, but seeing the German (with his first career top-3) on the Kick Sauber podium and not the seven-time world champion raised eyebrows, considering the huge investment to bring #44 to Maranello.
In that race Sir Lewis tried to secure his first podium with Ferrari and maintain the decade-long streak of top-3 finishes at Silverstone, but the SF-25 just didn’t suit the Briton’s characteristics, who in fact had to wait until the 2026 Chinese GP to break the drought. A year later, however, it’s a completely different Hamilton. Not only has he achieved his first podium in Red but also updated his win tally with the triumph in Barcelona. This is thanks to a much better feeling with the car (and perhaps with the very concept promoted by the new regulations) compared to 12 months ago. A telling statistic confirms this.
The numbers
Hamilton has doubled the points he had in the standings after eight race weekends: 125 now, 63 in 2025. While Sir doubles, Charles Leclerc remains steady: the Monegasque has exactly the same number of points (79) he had accumulated a year ago at the same point in the season. And now Silverstone is coming up, where Hamilton holds the record for wins (nine, no driver has ever won so many times on the same circuit).
Leclerc’s difficulties are evident and have also touched the communication sphere, with the Monegasque publicly blaming Brembo brake discs and following the path taken by Lewis Hamilton since Suzuka. The change has not benefited Leclerc so far, who crashed in qualifying at Montmeló and suffered a lot in braking and race pace at the Red Bull Ring. In the last three race weekends, the Ferrari driver has collected only four points: besides the “big names,” Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson, and Arvid Lindblad have performed better.
