How Hamilton, Leclerc and Piastri stack up – to the man who’s engineered them all

“We’re someplace previously for these drivers – from their begin factors to the ultimate goal. And we’re tremendous comfortable to see that they’ve success.”

No Method 1 driver has immaculately appeared on the high degree. Now a decade in the past, even Max Verstappen made the briefest cease within the junior classes earlier than his commencement to grand prix racing.

Again then, he’d simply scrapped carefully with eventual winner Esteban Ocon within the 2014 Method 3 European championship within the much-missed collection away from the F1 assist invoice. Verstappen’s Van Amersfoort Racing crew took on Ocon’s Prema Powerteam squad.

Quick-forward to 2025 and Ocon’s new team-mate at his newest F1 crew, Haas, is delving again to the Frenchman’s junior profession for recommendation on the best way to race him.

“I do know from Rene [Rosin, team boss of what is now Prema Racing] and from the individuals on the crew what he is like as a driver,” Oliver Bearman informed Autosport in an interview final weekend.

There’s loads of logic on this for Bearman. As he works to combine himself throughout the Haas operation, at this stage he’s nonetheless extra conversant in the Prema organisation with which he raced in Method 3 and Method 2 these previous two years.

And there are hyperlinks with the Italian single-seater powerhouse proper throughout the 2025 F1 area.

Ocon’s now former Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly scored the 2016 GP2 crown with the crew, whereas his present stablemate – Jack Doohan – raced for Prema in Method 4 in 2018. Simply throughout the midfield, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll gained the 2016 Euro F3 title with the identical crew – into which his father invested considerably. New Sauber rent Gabriel Bortoleto additionally raced in F4 with Prema.

However three extra 2025 drivers are linked in a deeper approach: Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri. The final two are extra Prema junior champions (Leclerc the F2 winner in 2017, Piastri scooping the identical prize with the identical crew in 2021, after he’d impressively gained the F3 title for Prema the yr earlier than too).

Hamilton’s junior profession sits a lot additional into motorsport’s previous. However, whereas he by no means raced for Prema, he did work with its technical director, Guillaume Capietto – whose phrases we started with above.

“[Hamilton] got here many occasions on the workshop. He even got here to have dinner with the crew at house. He was a pleasant man to work with”
Guillaume Capietto

The Frenchman occupied an analogous place for one more crack junior squad, ART Grand Prix, again in 2005 and 2006. These have been the years of Hamilton’s first alliance with Ferrari crew boss Fred Vasseur (ART’s founder) that yielded the 2005 Euro F3 and 2006 GP2 crowns (though the previous got here whereas Vasseur’s F3 arm was nonetheless known as ASM, earlier than being rebranded to align with its GP2 division for 2008).

However given how the 2024 F1 season ended, this trio should all be thought-about title contenders heading into the upcoming marketing campaign. Subsequently, as Bearman is doing with Ocon, it’s a helpful train to look again into their profitable pasts for perception into what may occur within the new season.

For this, there are few higher positioned to remark than Capietto. We spoke to him because the 2024 F2 season completed together with F1 in Abu Dhabi final month.

Then, Capietto was nonetheless working with new Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli – a a number of Prema champion at F4 after which Method Regional degree, and Bearman’s team-mate final yr. However, given his apparent lack of outcomes on the high degree as a class rookie and his new crew’s dizzying type fluctuations on this F1 guidelines period, he have to be handled as a separate entity at this stage.

Capietto labored alongside new Mercedes driver Antonelli throughout his sole F2 marketing campaign final yr

Photograph by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photographs

Hamilton’s huge ensuing F1 successes imply his expertise on the high degree are already well-known. Nevertheless it’s attention-grabbing to recall that in his crushingly-successful Euro F3 marketing campaign in 2005 – when Capietto was ASM’s lead F3 engineer, a job he later took up at ART in GP2 as nicely – he displayed the tyre administration and high-quality racecraft so essential in his F1 title run with Mercedes.

On the latter think about 2005, he loved scintillating scraps with former F1 title rival Sebastian Vettel. However when Hamilton arrived at ASM after a disappointing first season in Euro F3 with Manor Motorsport in 2004, Capietto says he was “a bit brut [raw] when it comes to driving expertise firstly”.

“Not braking tremendous nicely, not having numerous method in place, like taking marks for braking for strains, and so forth,” he provides. “He was doing numerous issues on feeling and so we had a interval in the course of the winter the place we labored rather a lot on this.

“However then from when he began to know that he wanted to do that along with following his pure expertise, he did an excellent job. He gained 15 races, 13 pole positions.

“Once we have been entering into qualifying, you knew that he would do one thing. And likewise, the F3 Euroseries at this stage, the qualifying was within the morning and, more often than not in Germany, it was all damp or moist or combined. And when it was combined situation and so forth, generally he was like one second in entrance of everyone firstly of the session. Plenty of automotive management.

“He was additionally tremendous eager to study and to find the world. [Plus], how we labored within the crew. He got here many occasions on the workshop. He even got here to have dinner with the crew at house. He was a pleasant man to work with.”

Hamilton’s finest years at Mercedes got here within the harmonious surroundings he and Valtteri Bottas helped forge between 2017 and 2021. Now Hamilton is being partnered with Leclerc, there’s a lot curiosity in how they’ll get alongside at Ferrari.

Handily for each, Capietto remembers that – after he’d switched from ART to Prema for 2016 – Leclerc’s profitable F2 marketing campaign contained precisely that spirit. This was when he raced alongside one other then Ferrari junior, Antonio Fuoco – now a highly-rated a part of the producer’s World Endurance Championship squad.

Hamilton was run by Capietto to win the 2005 F3 Euroseries crown for Fred Vasseur’s ASM crew

Photograph by: Sutton Photographs

“It was slightly bit completely different as a result of I believe, when Charles got here, he had already a bit extra expertise and he was arriving like a confirmed driver within the crew,” remembers Capietto. “The place we took Lewis at an earlier stage.

“However then we additionally gained the yr earlier than [with Gasly in 2016 GP2] – like for Lewis [ART drivers won the 2004 and 2005 Euro F3 and GP2 titles, with the latter going to his then friend Nico Rosberg]. And so there’s all the time this stress when the crew gained the yr earlier than that you recognize that, in the event you do job, you also needs to win the title [in 2017 for Leclerc].

“The ambiance was additionally good [in 2017]. We had two Ferrari drivers, so Ferrari was fairly concerned in following the drivers. We had relationship with Massimo Rivola [then Ferrari Driver Academy director].

“It was slightly bit completely different as a result of I believe, when Charles got here, he had already a bit extra expertise and he was arriving like a confirmed driver within the crew” Guillaume Capietto

“The yr was good and Charles is a pleasant particular person to work with – all the time humorous. Antonio additionally performed a job on this as a result of they have been buddies collectively – placing environment within the crew generally.”

There’s a parallel in how each Hamilton and Leclerc have been underneath stress from their respective benefactors on the similar stage – famously McLaren for the previous – to win junior titles on the first try to progress additional up the single-seater ladder.

For each, such a clause preceded their F1 promotions over a decade aside in 2007 and 2018, respectively. However Capietto says this was much less intense for Leclerc – given how he rapidly amassed a run of seven poles for the opening eight characteristic races of the 2017 F2 season. He translated this into 4 wins (his first in Bahrain coming through an attacking dash race technique) and a hefty mid-season factors lead.

For Leclerc, that was even over drivers with significantly extra expertise within the rebranded GP2 class, which on the time had not been gained by a rookie since Nico Hulkenberg did so (for ART) again in 2009.

Gasly’s success for Prema the earlier yr put Leclerc underneath speedy stress in 2017

Photograph by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Photographs

“Truthfully, I don’t know if he actually needed to really feel a lot stress,” says Capietto of Leclerc.

“As a result of the start of the yr was a bit tougher as a result of there was some drivers with extra expertise – like [now FE stalwart Oliver] Rowland and [former racing driver Artem] Markelov. And particularly within the tyre administration, we weren’t all the time the perfect within the first races.

“However, fairly rapidly, we have been sturdy in quali. So, we have been ranging from pole place numerous races and we managed it fairly nicely. That eliminated a little bit of stress as a result of we knew we had the tempo and we knew we have been in a position to win races.

“And we did not have numerous issues. On the finish I believe you’re feeling the stress whenever you battle for the title from mid-season and it is tough when the opposite ones are as fast as you. We had, for instance, a small tempo benefit that makes issues a bit simpler to deal with.”

When requested what his expertise of working with each 2025 Ferrari F1 drivers has taught him in regards to the potential of their partnership, Capietto replies: “It was some years in between, so it is all the time tough to match guys.

“However I believe they’re each proficient, after all. Each have fairly good automotive management and are ready when the circumstances are combined or damp, and so forth, to deal with that.

“And I believe Charles was coming already extra with all of the issues like I stated earlier than – the driving maps, the driving reference and the best way to drive the automotive theoretically. He had a greater background arriving to Prema. We labored on this a bit extra with Lewis [at ART].

“However on the finish they’re each doing nicely and mixing expertise and expertise when studying and dealing.”

Piastri can have F1 title aspirations after serving to McLaren rating its first constructors’ crown since 1998

Photograph by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Photographs

Piastri sits in a considerably completely different place. The McLaren driver heads into 2025 buoyed from being a part of the crew that secured the orange squad’s first constructors’ championship in 26 years. 

On the similar time, his brutal assault on team-mate Lando Norris at Monza final yr chimes with how different Prema insiders view his potential as an F1 title contender in his personal proper this time.

That, beneath his ultra-laid-back persona, lies a driver already possessed of the killer intuition required to snare a decent championship battle even throughout the stress cooking F1 curiosity ranges. Piastri’s half in that Abu Dhabi crash with Verstappen confirmed simply how he’ll meet fireplace with fireplace.

“He’s [Piastri] possibly a bit extra mathematic – doing issues in a plan. Whereas, possibly Lewis was generally going extra on his emotions” 
Guillaume Capietto

“He regarded way more relaxed,” Capietto says of the 2 seasons Piastri spent with Prema whereas a Renault/Alpine junior in 2020 and 2021.

“However he additionally had a little bit of a stress and he is additionally employee. Sure, generally you felt that you just’d say one thing and [ask yourself], ‘Did he perceive? Did he hear?’ So, you repeat, however on the finish he is extra there than you suppose.

“He’s additionally proficient. He’s possibly a bit extra mathematic – doing issues in a plan. Whereas, possibly Lewis was generally going extra on his emotions. That’s at this stage 20 years in the past, now he’s most likely very completely different!

“[In 2021 in F2] we have been additionally with [Piastri] and [now Prema IndyCar driver] Robert Shwartzman, which was additionally crew the place each have been buddies and there was additionally environment within the crew. Truthfully, fairly much like the yr with Leclerc and Fuoco.”

That any junior drivers will sooner or later go on to battle for the last word F1 prize is “our goal”, Capietto concludes.

“We have now had numerous drivers in F1 for Prema or myself coming from ART,” he says. “And we’re proud to have participated to their success and to have given one thing at one level that helped them to do that.”

Can an ex-Prema driver strike within the drivers’ championship battle this season?

Photograph by: Getty Photographs