3 F1 driver lineups (feat. Lewis Hamilton) that could potentially fall out against each other

The 2025 F1 season will see Lewis Hamilton join Ferrari in what will be an association of two of the most iconic names in the sport. That's not all, however, as the driver is heading into a team that could potentially fight for the title. He will be teamed up with Charles Leclerc, a highly rated young talent who is as close to a finished product as it gets in our sport.

With that being said, the grid is full of these drivers at the moment who are paired together with highly rated talents, and it's all to play for. There are two ways in which a team tends to curate its driver lineup. The first is where it puts the two best drivers it can get its hands on together. The second is where it anoints a team leader, and then there's the second driver, who would be the supporting cast.

The second method is arguably less efficient when it comes to the constructors' championship but does provide more harmony and single-minded focus when it comes to securing the drivers' title. The first method, however, does the inverse and hence could potentially lead to a few flashpoints within the team.

On the current F1 grid, different teams have applied different methods, but there are a few lineups that could potentially fall out against each other. Let's take a look.

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#1 Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

There are far too many who have question marks over how Lewis Hamilton would fare against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari. The question marks, however, should not just be limited to this; there needs to be an even bigger discussion on how the two would fare when there's a title at stake.

If we start the 2025 F1 season and Ferrari is one of the best cars on the grid, then the question might not be whether Lewis Hamilton can keep up with Charles Leclerc; it could be quite a few different versions of it. It could be whether Lewis is willing to play the team game and help Charles if he's fallen back early in the season.

On the other hand, it could even be whether Charles is willing to play the team game and help Lewis if that's how the cards stack up. There's a third one as well where the two could be battling for the title against each other, and at that time both access every trick in the book to gain an advantage.

In any of these possibilities, there's one thing that stands out: if Ferrari has a competitive car, things could get heated up between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Having two equally ambitious drivers does come with that risk anyway.

Could we see the Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc relationship suffer from a complete breakdown? Probably not, but we could see the two drivers having something similar to what the Brit had with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

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#2 Ollie Bearman-Esteban Ocon (Haas)

Esteban Ocon has been a tad notorious when it comes to getting on with his teammates. This was something that was obvious in his partnership with Fernando Alonso at Alpine, and it was obvious during his runs with Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez as well. It's not entirely his fault, and many times it's not him who does initiate something like this.

With that being said, there's a knack of getting into trouble with his teammates, and that has stood out for the French driver more often than not. At Haas, Esteban Ocon would be teamed up with the British prodigy and a driver who has already been touted as Lewis Hamilton's future replacement at Ferrari, Ollie Bearman.

Ollie is a brilliant talent, and he's proven so in Formula 2. If not for Kimi Antonelli, he might have been the hottest talent to enter F1 this season. For the uninitiated, there's a ruthless streak to the young driver as well, and it often comes out when he's in a wheel-to-wheel battle.

The driver doesn't compromise, and when you're teamed up against an experienced driver who doesn't give an inch either, it makes a difference. There's potential fireworks in play here as Ollie Bearman tries to replicate what Lewis Hamilton did at McLaren against Fernando Alonso in his first season, i.e., catch his highly rated teammate by surprise.

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#3 Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

Just like the Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc dynamics at Ferrari, there's going to be something similar at McLaren as well, as the team is expected to have one of the title-contending cars for 2025. In 2024, the team opted to tilt the balance in favor of Lando Norris owing to what he had accomplished in the car.

In 2025, however, an ever-improving Oscar Piastri could continue to be a bigger factor. The Australian is brilliant when it comes to the kind of growth trajectory that he's shown. He's already very competitive with Norris, and if next season he takes the next step and is in direct competition for the title with his teammate, things could get very interesting, and we might start seeing a few flashpoints that we probably haven't so far.