Pushed on how this campaign ranks in terms of pre-season excitement – with it being Leclerc’s eighth year in the sport – the Monegasque reflected: “There is a huge amount of excitement around the team, of course, with Lewis joining the team.
“I think that brought a lot of hype around the team, but the good thing is that within the team nobody has been affected by it and we’ve been really focusing on our performance and the way we have to work.
READ MORE: ‘I use it as fuel’ – Hamilton explains approach to dealing with criticism amid new chapter with Ferrari
“This is our priority, this is where we should focus and not [on] whatever is being said around the team – that won’t help us. We are just trying to focus on ourselves, we’ve done all the tests we wanted to do, which is positive, but there is still a lot of work to do before the first race.”
.webp?ssl=1 "James Hinchcliffe picks his top five drivers of the 2026 Formula 1 season so far")
