Juan Pablo Montoya believes life at Ferrari will get "harder" for Charles Leclerc as Lewis Hamilton becomes more ingrained within the Italian team.
The former Williams and McLaren driver suggested that the more "comfortable" the seven-time F1 drivers' champion becomes, and the more the Scuderia adjusts its car to him, the more difficult it will be for his team-mate.
Hamilton had endured a disappointing and underwhelming first few months on track with Ferrari. Having joined the Maranello squad to a wave of anticipation, the partnership has thus far failed to deliver.
14 rounds into the F1 season, Hamilton is sixth in the drivers' standings on 109 points, 42 behind Leclerc. However, the latter had five grand prix podiums this year to the former's zero.
Further still, Leclerc has comprehensively beaten the British driver in their head-to-heads; 10-4 in qualifying and 11-2 in grands prix (excluding their joint DSQ in China).
It has led to emotions boiling over, particularly at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, where Hamilton criticised himself for being "absolutely useless" and advocating a change in driver at Ferrari after he was knocked out of qualifying in Q2 whilst his team-mate secured pole.
However, Montoya can see the balance of power shifting between the pair as the season progresses.
"What's really happening is that Lewis is at a point where he wants to beat his team-mate," the seven-time grand prix winner told AS Colombia. "He's putting in huge effort.
"Working very hard, but the car isn't to his liking. The engineers are starting to understand, but they still don't fully grasp how difficult this car is to drive."
Hamilton has been vocal about the aspects of the SF-25 he is not happy with and has invested significant time in explaining that to the team.
Montoya predicts the Prancing Horse will start to tailor its development in the 105-time grand prix winner's favour.
"Charles looks very quick because he can handle the car's behaviour," the 49-year-old stated.
"I think that as Ferrari adjusts the car more to Lewis' style and he gets comfortable, life will get harder for Charles. So far, it hasn't been too tough for him, but we'll see."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on last weekend's F1 Hungarian Grand Prix! McLaren's interesting control over its drivers is discussed, as is the current struggle being endured by Lewis Hamilton.
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