Charles Leclerc has no issue with new teammate Lewis Hamilton being the focus of the media’s attention ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and said no driver can ever be bigger than the Ferrari brand.
Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari has been the biggest story in F1 this year and dominated headlines during the sport’s preseason.
Leclerc is entering his seventh season with Ferrari this year, leading Hamilton to nickname him “Mr. Ferrari” during a press conference in Australia on Thursday, but the focus from the outside has been firmly set on the seven-time world champion.
When Leclerc was asked if he was worried about Hamilton usurping him as the driver most closely associated with Ferrari, he responded: “No, because there’s no place for one particular driver in Ferrari. I mean, Ferrari is bigger than any driver.
“I think that’s always been the case in Ferrari. That’s what makes Ferrari so special. There’s support for the team and not for one specific driver. So I don’t think that’s the case.
“Obviously, Lewis is coming in the team as a legend of the sport. And so there’s a lot more attention on him than there is for me at the moment. But I’m completely fine with it. I completely understand that.
“And it’s normal that it’s that way. So it’s fine for me. But I don’t think there’s a competition on who needs to be the driver for Ferrari, and there won’t ever be that.”
While Hamilton has become the main focus for the media covering the sport, Leclerc said there has not been favoritism towards either driver within the team.
“For me, the only thing that matters is that we are working well as a team, that we end up with a car that is good enough to be world champions and then I’ve got to do the job on track in order to be a world champion,” he said.
“But then within the team, I’m not scared of that. I don’t think about that. These are people that I’ve known since 2015 [when Leclerc joined the Ferrari Driver Academy], so I was a kid back then.
“They’ve seen me grow up, so it’s not like it’s going to change from one day to the other. It’s not a question that I’ve asked myself.
“Of course, there’s a lot of attention for Lewis at the moment. Not within the team, but outside the team, which is normal. But that doesn’t affect me.
“The only thing that matters to me is that we are working properly, that we don’t get affected by the attention that there is around the team at the moment.
“But I’m not worried about how people perceive me within the team. This is a team that I know very, very well and all these people are more than just work colleagues. That’s probably why I don’t worry.”
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Source: espn.com