Charles Leclerc exchanged texts with Lewis Hamilton as Ferrari news rocked F1

Charles Leclerc has revealed that he’s been in contact with future Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton ahead of the seven-time world champion’s arrival in 2025.

Hamilton will be Leclerc’s new teammate from next season after deciding to leave Mercedes for Ferrari.

It will be the second time in Leclerc’s F1 career that he’s partnered a multiple-time world champion, teaming up with Sebastian Vettel in 2019 and 2020.

Speaking to select media, including Crash.net, after the launch of Ferrari’s 2024 F1 car, Leclerc confirmed that he’s had “discussions” with Hamilton already.

“Yes, we’ve had discussions with Lewis, especially when everything was announced and official,” Leclerc said.

“We texted each other, of course. As I said, Lewis is a great champion with a lot of experience and so much success.

“It is always interesting to have a new teammate as you learn different ways of working or driving. Even more so when my new teammate is a seven-time world champion.”

Leclerc has recently committed his long-term future to Ferrari by signing a multi-year deal.

There was some speculation about whether Leclerc knew about Hamilton joining for 2025 prior to committing to Ferrari, particularly as the Monegasque would have likely wanted assurances about the direction of the team.

Leclerc made it clear that he was aware of Hamilton joining but didn’t want to comment further “out of respect” for his current teammate, Carlos Sainz.

“These kinds of deals are not finalised overnight so it takes time and I was aware of those discussions before signing my deal so it didn’t come out as a surprise after signing,” he added.

“Then for the rest, I don’t want to comment that much, mostly out of respect for Carlos. We’ve had great years together and we have one year left together to do. We will do absolutely everything to finish on the highest note possible.

“Obviously, Lewis is an incredible driver, the most successful in history, with a lot of experience as well which he will bring to the team and myself, which is a good thing, but again, with Carlos it’s being great and we have one more year together to try and do the best job possible.”