Ferrari face Lewis Hamilton F1 decision they never wanted to make

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Ferrari

Ferrari face Lewis Hamilton decision they never wanted to make

The clock's ticking...

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Thursday 25 June 2026 13:15

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Lewis Hamilton is second in the F1 drivers' championship, 41 points behind Kimi Antonelli.

Charles Leclerc is fourth in the F1 drivers' championship, 81 points behind Kimi Antonelli.

Despite Mercedes looking like the all-round stronger team through the first seven races of the season, Ferrari appear to have a real chance to put some pressure on in the drivers' standings thanks to some German reliability issues and some Italian improvements.

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In other words, it's an old fashioned 'should a team start actively prioritising one of their drivers at the other's expense?' debate! By gar, it's been a while.

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Is it time for Ferrari to make a lead driver decision?

If you ask Ferrari, they'll tell you that they're fully committed to the overall performance of their team, that they're trying to put both drivers in the best possible positions, and the rest of that boilerplate stuff. At this point in the season, it's probably actually true.

It's Hamilton's win in Barcelona (and Antonelli's retirement from that race) that complicates the picture somewhat. Rather than being an unstoppable juggernaut, Mercedes are a pack leader that's shown just a flash of weakness. Enough for others to start planning their challenges.

If Ferrari's engine upgrade this weekend can put them in Mercedes' orbit in a straight line, it's absolutely title fight time. And if it's title fight time, it has to be Hamilton time.

Leclerc isn't necessarily a slower driver than his elder team-mate – in fact, he's still shown himself to be marginally faster over a single lap – but 81 points to the lead is a massive gap. That's more points than the Monegasque's got, in total, through seven races.

In a vacuum, prioritising Hamilton is a simple decision. In practice, less so. Leclerc's been in the team's driver academy since he was a teenager, and eight of his nine F1 seasons have been as a Ferrari driver. He's the team's golden boy. It would be devastating to make the decision that the team will put its whole weight behind a driver other than him for a title challenge.

Don't expect to see anything dramatic in the immediate future – no visions of Leclerc being told to pull aside and let his team-mate through to take fourth instead of fifth at the Red Bull Ring this weekend – but keep watching for signs.

Upgrades, of course, are the big one. If the factory starts rushing out upgrades so fast that they can only be given to one car at their first race weekend, and they land on the No. 44? They've made their decision.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc