Charles Leclerc reveals major Lewis Hamilton surprises: 'I did not expect that'

Charles Leclerc has revealed the major surprises he has discovered about Lewis Hamilton's approach to F1, both inside and outside the cockpit. 

Hamilton follows Marcus Ericsson, Sebastian Vettel, and Carlos Sainz as serving as Leclerc's team-mate after his 12-year stint with Mercedes came to an end. 

As well as focusing on driving, Hamilton also has major interests in his Mission 44 programme to increase diversity and opportunity within motorsport, and met with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street between the Spanish and Canadian GPs. 

This was one area Leclerc has explained how he is surprised by Hamilton, along with an in-car trait that he has never seen from any previous team-mate.

"I expected many things from Lewis joining the team, and having so much success in F1, you kind of expect to see the speed and the special things in terms of driving," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365. 

"All these things were expected, but I was still surprised by the way he brakes, for example. How late he brakes is very, very, very impressive. 

"In my career, I've always been the one braking later than my team-mates and that is a particular driving style I haven't seen in any of my team-mates, but Lewis is a step ahead in that direction.

"So that surprised me, but then for the rest, what surprised me the most, and it is one of the things I did not expect, is his discipline, it is very impressive.

"I remember seeing him managing so many different things, and I was like: 'This has to be hard', but then you look at how organised everything is, you can understand he is just 200% focused on racing and then everything is super-well organised for these other projects to run smoothly. 

"That is something I will take as an example for me, because we've all got passions, we've got projects outside of racing, but obviously for all of us, the most important is that we stay focused on racing, and Lewis is very, very impressive at that."