{"id":391326,"date":"2026-01-06T08:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391326\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:13:10","slug":"2021-a-big-dissapointment-but-2025-was-just-a-choker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391326\/","title":{"rendered":"‘2021, a big dissapointment, but 2025 was just a choker’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former F1 champion, Damon Hill, believes 2025 has cemented Charles Leclerc’s status as a potential world champion, whereas his Ferrari teammate, Lewis Hamilton, had “a choker” of a year.<\/p>\n

it\u2019s not been a season that he will look back on. It might even be worse than 2021 for him.- Damon Hill.\"Leclerc-Hamilton.jpg\"\/<\/p>\n

Photo: RacePictures<\/p>\n

Leclerc was the only Ferrari driver to stand on the podium across the entirety of the Formula One season, with Hamilton seeing out his first-ever campaign without a single rostrum finish. <\/p>\n

Justin Bell, renowned motorsport commentator and interviewer and host of the Drive to Wynn podcast, weighed in on Leclerc’s ‘bullish’ F1 2025 performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we do have to give credit to Leclerc,” Bell\u00a0said of Leclerc.\u00a0\u201cI think Charles has also got to the end of the year and just thrown everything at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when the car was quick, he looked bullish. And I think at least he ended with a bit of a high note, which is important, I imagine, in Maranello.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill sees Leclerc as a potential champion, whilst Hamilton’s 2025 was a ‘choker’<\/p>\n

Hill, agreeing with Bell’s comments, upped the ante by stating Leclerc’s year-round performance set him apart as a potential world champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t think anyone can look at what Charles has done and not conclude that he\u2019s an extremely fast racing driver and got the potential to become a world champion. They just need to give him the car,” Hill added.<\/p>\n

The 1996 F1 champion then turned his attention to Hamilton, and while he stated his fellow Briton had a better season finale than his Ferrari teammate, driving from P16 to P8, ultimately, Hamilton’s season had been one to forget quickly.<\/p>\n

“I think Lewis did have a better race [in Abu Dhabi],” Hill continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, he got up into the points, but it\u2019s not been a season that he will look back on. It might even be worse than 2021 for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the disappointment was massive then, but this season has been really a choker for him,\u201d Hill concluded.<\/p>\n

Alpine fires up F1 2026 carAlpine has started up its 2026 Formula 1 car, dubbed the A526, marking a new era as the team switches from its in-house power unit to Mercedes engines.
\n Read the full story here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1 paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former F1 champion, Damon Hill, believes 2025 has cemented Charles Leclerc’s status as a potential world champion, whereas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3025,39259,578,28673,930,576,577,932,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-391326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-charles-leclerc","11":"tag-damon-hill","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-f1-news","14":"tag-ferrari","15":"tag-formula-1","16":"tag-formula1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}