Lewis Hamilton hoping Charles Leclerc is wrong after 'rule change' comment
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been unable to challenge Red Bull this season.
Lewis Hamilton has claimed that he hopes Charles Leclerc is wrong in his prediction that Red Bull and Max Verstappen cannot be caught in the development race before the new technical changes hit the teams in 2026.
Hamilton and Leclerc are the only non-Red Bull drivers to take pole positions this season, but neither have managed to convert those poles into race wins with the Milton Keynes-based team taking a clean sweep of victories in the opening 13 rounds of the year.
Verstappen has claimed 11 of those 13 victories including each of the last nine, setting him on course for a third successive Drivers’ Championship title with the gap to team-mate Sergio Perez currently standing at a mammoth 138 points.
When asked about Leclerc’s suggestion at Zandvoort last weekend, Hamilton explained: “Well, we don’t have a rule change coming up, so I hope that that’s not the case. But the fact is they are ahead and most likely have started developing next year’s car already months before everybody else and [are] 100, 200 points ahead in the championship.
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“So it’s very possible that Charles could be right, but we’re working on a steep gradient trying to develop and get ourselves to close the gap. Whether or not we can next year will be within that? I hope we can.”
Leclerc had previously admitted that he doesn’t think Ferrari, Mercedes or any of the other title hopefuls will be able to catch Red Bull before the new technical regulation changes come into effect in 2026.
Speaking after the summer break, Leclerc explained: “We are trying to work towards catching Red Bull but it's a big margin. It's going to be very difficult to catch them before the change of regulations.
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“It's different than in the past. In qualifying, we are much closer than what we have seen in the past. Normally, when we see a team dominating, it was in qualifying and the race With Red Bull now, it's much more in the race than qualifying.
“The gaps are bigger in the race compared to qualifying. That's why we are all working towards our race pace because Red Bull is so far ahead. There is a lot of work to do. We will have some development in the next few races that can help us do a step forward.”