Charles Leclerc reveals what ‘surprised’ him from working with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari as he opens up about relationship

“When I joined, I only had done one year in Formula 1 [with Sauber], so everything was still new to me and I had to learn how a team like Ferrari would work in Formula 1, even though I knew the factory and everything by being in the Ferrari Driver Academy before.

“For Lewis, an Italian team is pretty new to him, but he has achieved so much and he arrives here as a legend of the sport.

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“It’s really cool to see what it was like for him to have so much success in other teams and the way they used to work, so on that we’ve learned a lot, and it was really exciting to see how happy and excited he was about the whole thing.

“For me that meant that the off-season was a bit more in the shadow, but I enjoyed it. I focused on myself, I’m pushing at the maximum to be ready for the first race, and I’m really looking forward to this year. I’m hoping that we’ll start the year in a more positive way compared to last year.”