Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley believes the Maranello outfit may need to make the choice to prioritise seven-time Components 1 champion Lewis Hamilton over Charles Leclerc whether it is to face any actual probability of clinching the 2026 drivers’ championship.
Smedley’s feedback got here after a dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the place Leclerc took an emotional victory, his first grand prix win since 2024 and Ferrari’s 250th win.
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli continues to guide the drivers’ championship on 179 factors, adopted by his team-mate George Russell on 154. Hamilton sits third on 147 factors, remaining nicely inside placing distance of the frontrunners. In the meantime, race winner Leclerc now sits fourth on 108 factors, leaving him 71 factors adrift of Antonelli.
Throughout a post-race episode of the Excessive Efficiency Racing podcast, Smedley argued that, regardless of Leclerc outperforming Hamilton within the race, Ferrari can’t afford an intra-team battle if it needs to efficiently problem Mercedes.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Photographs through Getty Photographs
“100% agree with that. Nonetheless, I’m going to go in opposition to my very own sense of logic and say I truly assume that doing one thing as excessive as that’s the solely probability Ferrari has of profitable this world championship,” Smedley defined, addressing a hypothetical situation of swapping the automobiles on monitor in the course of the British Grand Prix with the championship in thoughts.
“I believe that in the event that they play the sport of attempting to outpace Mercedes in automotive phrases, after which they play the sport of permitting the drivers to race one another with such an enormous hole between Lewis and Charles, the likelihood considerably diminishes for them to win the drivers’ world championship.
“So, I believe that though it goes in opposition to my logic, there are too many variables arising. So why would you ever do it? However I believe that’s the one and solely technique that they have of Lewis profitable this world championship.”
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