Charles Leclerc reveals major surprise from Lewis Hamilton partnership

Charles Leclerc has admitted surprise over discovering a similarity in the driving style between himself and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton made the switch to Ferrari this year following a highly successful 12-year stint at Mercedes.

Ferrari has endured a difficult start to the year with just one podium coming in the first five grands prix, courtesy of Leclerc last time out in Saudi Arabia.

Leclerc described the car's development direction as “extreme” as he noted the situation is “new” for him, despite being in his seventh season with Ferrari.

However, Leclerc downplayed the significance of having to adapt his driving style to suit a car's behaviour.

“I see lots of things around that most of the time, that driving style is super important,” Leclerc told media including RacingNews365. 

“I feel like you have more than enough freedom in the car setup to adapt a car to someone's driving style. So that doesn't change a lot.”

As Leclerc and Hamilton push to lift Ferrari up the pecking order, Leclerc revealed his surprise over how similarly the pair approach a corner entry.

"It's always a bit more helpful to be pushing in the same direction, because we need the same thing from a car,” he said.

“With Lewis, I was very surprised how similar we would approach the corners in corner entry.

"I don't want to do any particular compare with other drivers, but when Lewis came, I did not expect that and we are both quite aggressive in corner entry and that means that we require the same things out of the car for sure."