An engineer had the honor of working with Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri – This is Guillaume Capietto’s comparison
The 2025 Formula One season promises to be a thrilling one, with more than a handful of drivers in with a realistic chance of taking the title. In addition to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri are also among them. Guillaume Capietto is an engineer and has had the honor of working with Hamilton, Leclerc and Piastri. He compares the three drivers at the beginning of their careers.
In the junior classes, the Italian team Prema is one of the top teams. Rene Rosin is the team principal of the talent factory, which will also be entering the IndyCar stage in the USA in 2025. Many drivers competing in Formula 1 today spent time at Prema or had to compete against the Italian team with other teams, which was never easy because Prema was consistently at the front.
The list of active and former Formula 1 drivers who were trained by Prema is long: Leclerc, Piastri, Mick Schumacher, Oliver Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Logan Sargeant, Robert Kubica, Pierre Gasly, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll, Jack Doohan – they all started for the Italian team at some point. Hamilton never drove for the team, but worked with Capietto at ART. At that time, the current seven-time world champion was still a long way from where he is today, says the engineer.
Talent with a thirst for knowledge
Capietto describes Hamilton at the beginning of his career as a driver who relied on his backside. “He wasn’t super good at braking and hadn’t yet learned much technique, such as reference points when braking and setting lines,” says Capietto. “He did everything by instinct back then, but there was a winter when we worked hard on it.”
“Once he understood that he needed that in addition to his natural talent, he did a great job,” Capietto continues. ”He won 15 races and took 13 pole positions. When we went into qualifying, we knew he would make a difference. In the Formula 3 Euro Series, qualifying took place in the morning and in Germany it was always damp or wet or mixed.”
“When the conditions were mixed, he was sometimes a second faster than everyone else at the beginning of the session. He had the car under control,” the engineer recalls. ‘He was eager to learn and discover the world. He always worked with the team and spent a lot of time in the garage. He also came to eat with the team. It was just great working with him.’
Leclerc already had experience
The rest is history: Hamilton made the leap to the premier class and won a total of seven Formula 1 titles. In 2025, he will line up for Ferrari for the first time. There he will drive together with Leclerc, whom Capietto also knows from his time in the junior formula racing series. “It was a bit different back then because Charles already had a bit more experience and was basically an established driver. We had Lewis at an earlier stage.“
”The atmosphere was good back then, we had two Ferrari drivers and the brand was very involved in watching their drivers,” says Capietto. ”We had a good relationship with Massimo Rivola [then head of the Ferrari Driver Academy]. It was a great year and Charles was great to work with – always good fun. Antonio [Fuoco] was also a factor, because the two were friends and that created a good atmosphere in the team.”
Hamilton and Leclerc had one thing in common back then: they were under scrutiny – Hamilton from McLaren, Leclerc from Ferrari. Both were tasked with winning titles. Leclerc had less to contend with compared to Hamilton and was already in the clear lead at the season halfway point. “I don’t know if he felt much pressure,” says Capietto. “It was a bit more difficult at the beginning of the year because there were drivers with more experience. In particular, his tire management was not the best in the first few races.“
”But soon we were very strong in qualifying, got a lot of pole positions and were doing well. That took the pressure off because we knew we had the pace and were able to win races,” explains the engineer. “We didn’t have many problems either. When you’re fighting for the title halfway through the season and the others are just as fast, the pressure comes automatically. But we had a slight pace advantage, so it was easier to handle.”
Hamilton and Leclerc, with Capietto lying around a decade between them, so it’s difficult to ‘compare the two’. “Of course, both are talented. Both have good control of the car and can handle mixed or wet conditions.” According to Capietto, Leclerc had an advantage back then because, unlike Hamilton, he didn’t have to learn a lot of theoretical aspects. ”Both were good and combined talent and skill, learning and working.”
Then there is Piastri, who won his first Formula One race as a McLaren driver in 2025. Together with Norris, he won McLaren’s first Constructors’ Championship in 26 years. “He seems much more relaxed,” says Capietto about the Australian, who also drove for Prema. “But he was also under pressure and was a good worker. Sometimes we wondered, ‘Did he understand? Did he listen?’ We repeated it, but in the end he did better than we thought.“
Piastri more of a mathematician
”He is also talented, but a bit more mathematical, he does everything with a plan, while Hamilton relied much more on his feeling. But that was 20 years ago, today he [Hamilton] is probably quite different.” At the time, Piastri was driving with Prema IndyCar driver Robert Shwartzmann. ”It was a good team, the two were friends and there was a good atmosphere in the team. It was similar to Leclerc and Fuoco.”
Prema’s goal is to one day take its drivers in the direction of Formula 1, and with the IndyCar series, the team now has a second string to its bow, with which the drivers can build a professional career. “We have already produced many Formula 1 drivers at Prema, and also at ART. We are proud to have been part of their success, because we helped them achieve it.”
