Leclerc: Beating Hamilton not a target until Ferrari starts fighting higher up in F1

Charles Leclerc says the prospect of an intra-team battle with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton is not of immediate concern, particularly as they are "not fighting for very interesting positions" in Formula 1 2025.

Although Ferrari has proven itself capable of securing occasional podiums so far this year, these have been irregular at best; Leclerc has four podiums across the opening 12 rounds, while Hamilton is yet to achieve a top-three finish in grand prix trim this season. 

Both Ferrari drivers spoke ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix on their willingness to offer the team feedback on where they feel it needs to improve to be in title contention, with Hamilton stating that Ferrari is "not firing on all cylinders". 

As such, driving the Maranello outfit forward is the focus. Leclerc says that this very much has precedence in his mind for the rest of 2025 rather than beating Hamilton. 

The Monegasque stated that battling with his team-mate over the lesser points placings is of little interest to him, and that Hamilton is not currently his "target". 

"It's something that really is in the background for now,” said Leclerc. “You're always looking at it in one way or another, but to be honest, when you are fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth, it's not really something that interests me that much.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

"Then, of course, when we start to fight for wins, then you look at those things a lot closer. 

"But it's not really been part of my... I was just here to try and learn as much as possible from Lewis of what I could learn, what could benefit me as a driver, and then focus on myself with the target of doing the best possible job, which means beating Lewis, but not only. 

"I think the main target of the team and my main target at the moment is to bring Ferrari back to the top. And, yeah, Lewis is not my target at the moment because we're not fighting for very interesting positions."

Ferrari has arrived in Belgium with a new rear suspension package, one that it tested on a filming day at Mugello last week. This ensured that any running was only cursory given the distance restrictions on any filming day tests.

Leclerc stated that there was no real difference in behaviour from what he could tell in his initial run, but was keen to keep a lid on any further details about the new geometry.

"We did not [feel a difference in behaviour] and I'm not going to comment the specific behaviours of this suspension," said Leclerc.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

"Obviously, these are things that remain for us and it would be quite stupid for us to comment it globally on what does what. But we'll find out tomorrow on track.

"I don't think [it will change how we set up the car]. I can find the confidence if I set up the car in a different way. So, if I need confidence, I'll go for that. 

"But for now, I prefer to go for performance rather than confidence. It doesn't always pay off and I think we've seen it last race weekend in Silverstone, where obviously I had my struggles, which were pretty big on the wet. 

"And I know that this is the risk of running such an extreme set-up. I don't think this will improve with that because we still need to set up the car in a relatively similar position in order to extract the maximum out of it. But I'm happy to follow that path."