$6M-worth former Red Bull man shares honest verdict on challenge of managing Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the same team

Former Red Bull man and Haas F1 principal Guenther Steiner reckons Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have good relations with Ferrari principal Frederic Vasseur, which would help make a good combination. The duo enter the 2025 season as teammates for the first time after the British driver joined Ferrari from Mercedes at the start of the year.

Hamilton, who raced for the Brackley-based German team from 2013 to 2024, won six of his seven championships with them before activating his release clause to join the most iconic team in F1. The 40-year-old and his new teammate Charles Leclerc had raced for Fred Vasseur in their junior days in F2 and F3 at ART Racing.

In an interview with CNN, Steiner, who worked as a technical director at Red Bull from 2006 to 2008 and has a net worth of $6 million, as per Celebrity Net Worth, spoke about the challenge of managing two high-quality drivers:

"Both of these drivers they drove for Fred's F2 and F3 teams, Lewis and Charles. So he has got good relationships in person. That's for both of them. They have respect for Fred because without Fred they wouldn't be where they are. So that is a good place to be.

"But obviously there will be times when Fred needs to take hard decisions. But I don't think he is afraid of it. I think he put himself in having these two drivers in good position to win a championship."

Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc completed one and a half days inside the SF-25 in pre-season testing in Bahrain last week.

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Lewis Hamilton analyses his pre-season testing with Ferrari in Bahrain

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton said that he and the team made "good progress" during the three days of testing at the Sakhir International Circuit in Bahrain.

Speaking with F1.com, the seven-time world champion reflected on the test:

“Overall, it’s been a great few days, and we’ve made some strong progress as a team. We had to finish a little earlier than planned today, and the weather has been hard to predict all week, but that’s how testing works sometimes, and we’ve managed to gather a lot of good information to build on before the season starts.

“The whole team has done an incredible job, and I’m so excited to get to the first race in Melbourne. I can’t wait to go racing with them.”

Lewis Hamilton has signed a two-year contract with Ferrari, which expires at the end of the 2026 season, with an option to extend until 2027. Both parties will hope to bring glory back to Maranello.