As the new season gets underway in Australia, all eyes will be on the battle that’s set to unfold, and for good reason. The Bahrain tests left us with more questions than answers regarding the real differences between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. On the first day, Leclerc finished with a nearly one-second advantage over the seven-time champion, although it’s worth noting he had the benefit of running in the afternoon session. Over the next two days, however, Hamilton edged out his new teammate by a slim margin.
There are plenty of predictions circulating about how this rivalry will play out, and one person who doesn’t shy away from stirring the pot, especially when it comes to other teams, is Red Bull’s executive advisor, Helmut Marko. He’s already sharing his thoughts on what might happen. “In Bahrain, Leclerc was significantly faster, but that’s to be expected,” Marko said in an interview with ‘Sport.de’, analyzing what they observed from the pit wall. “He knows the team, he knows the car…”
Marko continued, “Hamilton put in a lot of laps, gradually improving, but he wasn’t at Leclerc’s level.” However, he’s not taking anything for granted when it comes to this duel. “We need to see how the first race plays out, and we know that if everything falls into place for Hamilton, he can improve dramatically,” Marko acknowledged. “One is a world champion, the other is chasing his first title, but Leclerc is one of the best in qualifying,” he noted, highlighting the credentials of each driver heading into the first race at Albert Park.
Given how closely packed the field is, Marko emphasized that “three or four tenths of a second in qualifying can translate to three to five positions on the grid. And as we all know, overtaking is incredibly tough these days.” A poor Saturday for anyone, in this case, Hamilton, could turn into a significant hurdle for Sunday’s race.
Dire Start for Lewis
According to Marko, Hamilton will need to hit his stride on Saturdays to achieve good results, which is exactly where he struggled against Russell over the past two years, despite being in a team where he had all the experience. “From this perspective, it’s crucial that Hamilton can keep pace with Leclerc in the early qualifying sessions, but that’s certainly not going to be easy,” Marko argued.
All of this assumes, of course, that the SF-25 is genuinely competitive from the outset, as it left some doubts during testing. “He moved to Ferrari of his own accord, seeking a new challenge, and I believe he’ll do everything in his power to ensure his expectations are met,” Marko said about Hamilton’s motivation in his Ferrari venture. If that’s not the case, however, the situation could quickly turn against him.
“We’re at the start of the season, and Hamilton can improve in a supernatural way, but it’s also possible that if things don’t fall into place and he sees no chance of winning, he could lose motivation quickly,” Marko predicted, considering the scenario where Hamilton finds himself outpaced by not just his teammate but also by McLaren and Verstappen from the start. This Saturday will clear up many of these doubts, but seeing Hamilton in red is bound to evoke a range of emotions.