Smedley: It seems that Leclerc has somewhat lost his way.

      Rob Smedley, former racing engineer for Ferrari and technical consultant for Formula 1, is surprised that this year Charles Leclerc, despite all his experience and skill, has somewhat lost his way compared to Lewis Hamilton, his teammate.

      If last year the seven-time world champion, when he just started racing for Ferrari, was not doing well, especially by his standards, then this season, when Formula 1 transitioned to new generation cars, the picture is different. After 11 completed races, Lewis is in 2nd place in the individual standings, ahead of Charles by 31 points, who is a couple of spots lower.

      “For the first time in a long time, Charles finds himself in a situation where his teammate is noticeably ahead of him,” Smedley said while participating in the High Performance podcast. “In the first half of the season, Charles was often dissatisfied with the car. I know that at Scuderia they changed some things in the SF-26, they changed the brake system components, they are now made of different materials and all that. But it seems that he has somewhat lost his way – and all this despite the fact that he is a very experienced and great professional.”

      However, Otmar Szafnauer, who previously led teams such as Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin and Alpine F1 and was Smedley's interlocutor, believes that the situation does not require any outside intervention, as it will correct itself:

      “This is one of those cases where Leclerc should be left alone. If I were leading this team, I wouldn’t call him in for a talk, but would try to support him as much as possible.

      At the beginning of the year, Lewis's advantage was somewhat more noticeable than it is now – I’m not talking about the actual results, but about my own impressions. In the last three races, Charles has outperformed his teammate and is already closing the gap.”