Lewis Hamilton receives 'Charles Leclerc's house' Ferrari warning

Three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish has warned Lewis Hamilton that Ferrari is "Charles Leclerc's house", with time needed to make adjustments to suit his style.

The seven-time world champion has endured a tricky start to life at Ferrari, particularly as he has failed to claim a podium in the first half of the season. 

A sprint pole was converted into a sprint victory in China; however, fourth in Imola, Austria and Silverstone are his best grands prix results. 

On the other side of the garage, Leclerc has secured four podiums in the opening 12 rounds and has scored 16 points more than the 40-year-old.

Moving to Ferrari was never expected to be simple for the 105-time race winner, who found himself as Mercedes' leader for over a decade. As a result, things were often done in his preference and to his style, something yet to happen at the Maranello-based outfit. 

Similarly to how Hamilton was raised by Mercedes through his junior career, Leclerc has been nurtured and looked after by Ferrari since a young age. He has been viewed as its golden child and is in his seventh season racing for the Prancing Horse. 

Because of that, the Ferrari garage has very much been Leclerc's in recent years, representing an unusual environment for Hamilton.

"I think Charles is one of the fastest drivers in the grid," McNish said on the latest episode of the RacingNews365 podcast. "You are going into Charles' house, to some extent, he knows where everything is, who does what. 

"He's been there. He's grown up there. He grew up there before he was in Formula 1. If you remember, he was part of their academy programme. 

"So it was always, and it doesn't matter about Lewis' seven world titles, it was always going to take time to get up to speed. And you've seen, I would say, the flashes of Lewis as we know and what he can do, and it's about trying to get the environment round about him that's consistent.

"Doesn't seem that the communications always 100% between him and his engineer. I'm not sure if that's just excerpts of radio communication to create the story, but sounds like sometimes that.

"There's an alignment, but that will come with time as well, because the engineers have to understand what the driver wants, when he wants it, how he wants it, and obviously we hear the end result of it, but I think Lewis is going to have to fight pretty hard."

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