Leclerc Says Ferrari Hasn't Shifted Toward Hamilton
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 6, 2026
Leclerc on Ferrari
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari has not shifted its weight toward Lewis Hamilton and has made no real change inside the garage. He pushed back on the idea that the team now tilts in Hamilton’s direction, and he framed the situation as a matter of form rather than loyalty. Leclerc said Ferrari still feels like family to him. He also said he is focused on his own side of the garage and his own work, not on any wider political read of the team’s balance.
That stance fits the message he has given throughout the current stretch of the season. Leclerc said he is not thinking about team orders yet. He said that subject only matters later if Ferrari needs to put the collective result ahead of individual goals. Until then, he said Ferrari’s interests come first, while his immediate priority remains his own performance. The tone is firm and direct. Leclerc wants the conversation centered on pace, results and execution, not on any supposed shift in allegiance.
He also said Hamilton looks more settled now inside Ferrari, but he stopped short of turning that into a story about favoritism. For Leclerc, the key point is that a driver can look stronger at one stage and less sharp at another without changing the structure around him. He said he sees Hamilton’s recent edge as part of that normal swing in performance.
Hamilton's momentum
Hamilton has the edge in the intra-team points battle and the broader numbers back up his run. He leads Leclerc 125-79, sits third in the championship and has built momentum after a slow start to life at Ferrari. Hamilton has put together three straight podium finishes and then won in Barcelona, a sequence that changed the shape of his season and sharpened the focus on Ferrari’s internal hierarchy.
His recent form has also carried through the team’s latest race weekends. At the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Hamilton finished fifth and passed Leclerc three times during the race. That result added another data point to a stretch in which Hamilton has looked stronger than his teammate. Before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, he also took Sprint qualifying pole. Leclerc qualified fifth for the Sprint, a clear sign that the gap between the two cars and two drivers was part of the conversation going into that weekend.
Leclerc has not stood on the podium since the Japanese Grand Prix in March, which gives Hamilton’s rise even more weight inside the garage. That contrast does not mean Leclerc sees a change in Ferrari’s commitment. It does mean the points table and the recent finishes have created pressure around the team’s internal battle. Hamilton’s ability to recover from an early dip has put him in a position where every strong result strengthens his case on merit alone.
Team orders
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has said Ferrari may eventually need to back Hamilton over Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship if Hamilton remains the stronger mathematical bet to win the title. Steiner also said Ferrari would be more likely than Mercedes to make that kind of call because it may need to act earlier to protect a championship chance. That view adds another layer to the debate around Ferrari’s two drivers, even if Leclerc is not ready to think about it himself.
Ferrari’s wider position in the standings helps explain why the issue has started to surface. The team sits second in the constructors’ standings and trails Mercedes by 98 points. That deficit keeps the margin for error tight and puts a premium on every strategic decision. In that setting, team orders can move from theory to live possibility quickly, especially when one driver has the stronger run of form and the numbers to support it.
Leclerc has made his position clear. He wants the focus on pace, not politics. He says Ferrari remains family, he says his side of the garage is his only concern for now and he says team orders can wait until the team actually needs them. Hamilton’s recent results have changed the conversation, but Leclerc insists they have not changed Ferrari itself.
