"And Charles Leclerc will still beat him": Fans react to insider telling Ferrari to build a car around Lewis Hamilton's driving style

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton made the move from Mercedes to Ferrari after the 2024 F1 season. The Briton hasn't had the smoothest of starts at the Maranello-based team and has struggled to tame the 2025 Ferrari challenger. Amid all the chaos, former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya came out and asked Scuderia to build the 2026 F1 car around Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc had been the No.1 driver at Ferrari before Hamilton’s arrival. The dynamic has now shifted with both drivers being great candidates for the lead driver role. While the 2025 car is majorly built around Leclerc’s feedback, Ferrari will have to make the decision on whose feedback to prioritize for the 2026 season.

Leclerc likes a car that has a pointy front end, i.e., an oversteery car. Hamilton, on the other hand, likes a stable rear end,i.e., a car with understeer characteristics. The seven-time champion has struggled to come to terms with the SF25.

Amid all this, Juan Pablo Montoya came out and suggested that Ferrari should build next year's car around Lewis Hamilton since he has the experience of winning championships with a car. He said (per Autosport):

“In my opinion. if Ferrari want to be competitive next year the base of the car has to be more based on Lewis than on Charles because the cars that have been based on Charles are cars that can win one or two races a year, but no [titles]”

The F1 fans came out and reacted to Juan Pablo Montoya's statement about Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton.

A fan wrote, “And Leclerc will still beat him.”

“Sounds like a great idea, have a car not suited to Leclerc so Ferrari can have 2 slow drivers ..😂😂😂,” comments another user.

“With a car based on Hamilton, Charles will still beat him in his current form and if it's a good enough car Lercerc will win the WDC 😉,” mentioned another.

Fans came out and detailed how George Russell was able to beat Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in equal machinery, as they wrote:

“What would be the excuse when Leclerc smashes Hamilton with bigger margin next year? Wasn’t the car built around Hamilton, When Russell beat him 2/3 seasons?”

Another fan commented, “Given how the Mercedes went backwards when they built the car more towards Hamilton's feedback. I'd say that's a very bad idea.”

A fan chose to have a neutral opinion about Montoya's comment and suggested:

“I think that's the wrong move. Lewis doesn't seem to jive with these regulations. Build a faster car, better balanced, etc, and Lewis will be faster. I don't think you should build for the driver.”

Lewis Hamilton details Ferrari's deficit to McLaren in the F1 championship

McLaren came into the 2025 season with the most dominant car. Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari were all somewhere between three to five-tenths slower than the Papaya team in the race trim. Ferrari brought an update recently, which seems to have improved the car.

However, Lewis Hamilton has suggested that Ferrari is still five-tenths slower than McLaren. The Briton said (via Racing News 365):

“For me, it's half a second, but they're three-tenths clear, probably, to the guys behind. Just over three tenths, I think it is. It's not an insurmountable amount that you could catch up. But, for example, a lot of work went in... months went into developing and getting a tenth [of a second] of performance.”

With the 2026 regulations on the horizon, Lewis Hamilton added that he's not sure whether Ferrari has upgrades worth five-tenths in the pipeline.