Lewis Hamilton cannot afford to get dominated by Charles Leclerc at the F1 Canadian GP

The 2025 F1 Canadian GP is a crucial race for Lewis Hamilton and his stint at Ferrari. The 7x champion shocked the world last season when he announced that he was moving on from Mercedes to the Italian team.

This also meant that the driver would ally with the most successful driver on the most successful team in F1. At the start of the season, the hype around the partnership was next level. His first picture outside Enzo Ferrari's house, the storytelling, the messaging—everything was on point.

Then came the business end of the season. As soon as the racing has begun, it has been one-way traffic. Except for the high point of China, where Lewis Hamilton was quicker than Charles Leclerc until the race on Sunday, there has hardly been a race weekend where we can claim that the driver has had any edge over his younger teammate.

The gap has varied from time to time, and it will continue to do so as the season continues, but Lewis Hamilton has been the

a slower driver. When the driver moved from Mercedes after a 12-year stint, an acclimatisation process was expected. He was expected to take his time, and only when things started clicking was he expected to close up and even beat Charles Leclerc.

Unfortunately, we're in the second third of the season now, and whatever adaptation process was supposed to be there, it's over. Is Lewis Hamilton completely at one with the car? Probably not, but he should have a decent database by now.

This is where the Canadian GP race comes into the picture. If the driver gets dominated by his teammate around Montreal this weekend, it's going to be an utter disaster.

Lewis Hamilton is stunning at the F1 Canadian GP.

Lewis Hamilton has been mind-blowing around the Gilles Villeneuve circuit. Let's just take a look at some of his numbers around the track.

He has 7 wins, 6 pole positions, 10 podiums, a qualifying head-to-head of 12-3 against his teammates, and has never qualified outside of the top 5. Even when we talk about the ground effect era, Lewis Hamilton has finished on the podium in 2022 and 2023. He almost nabbed one in 2024 as well.

This is one track where Hamilton has more or less been the benchmark since he debuted in 2007. If there ever is a track where he was going to get one over on his teammate, we're looking at it.

This might be Charles Leclerc's worst track on the calendar

Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, has had a disastrous run around the Gilles Villeneuve circuit. He's had just one podium in 5 attempts, and that was achieved in 2019, where, ironically, Lewis Hamilton won.

If there ever was a track where things just don't go his way, Leclerc would pick this one, and if there ever was a track where Hamilton could get one over on his younger teammate, it is this one.

The expectations that come with the price tag

Now, the most important bit here is the reason why Hamilton was signed by Ferrari. If you sign a 7x F1 champion to your team, you do so because you want them to take the lead and be the one who takes the team forward.

You do not sign them to be the second driver within the team. The name 'Lewis Hamilton' was brought to Ferrari because John Elkann expected the Brit to bring in the kind of gold dust that the driver of his calibre has brought to different teams throughout his career.

How much value you hold within a team can be easily estimated by how much you are paid compared to your teammates. It's not going to surprise anyone that Lewis Hamilton is arguably being paid multiple times what Charles Leclerc is getting from Ferrari.

When that happens, it comes with a certain level of expectation. You can have a few races that you take to acclimate to the team and the car. But if, on your best track and your teammate's worst track, your teammate holds an edge over you, then that's where questions will be asked.

Hamilton has been shielded by Fred Vasseur until now, and the Frenchman would continue to do so even in the future. But if the F1 Canadian GP shows the same story that the rest of the races have until now, the Ferrari senior management's trust might take a big hit.

Lewis Hamilton cannot afford to lose to Charles Leclerc at the F1 Canadian GP, and he certainly cannot afford to get dominated by him.