Leclerc told he is not a championship contender and can be a 'great asset' for Hamilton

Leclerc took his first victory since 2024 at Silverstone, after Kimi Antonelli's suffered late misfortune while chasing the Ferrari driver for what appeared to be a certain win. It was a welcome return to form for Leclerc, who had been going through a rough patch at the same time as his teammate Hamilton was finding his best form for Ferrari.

Hamilton's third-place in Silverstone means he sits 39 points ahead of teammate Leclerc, but more importantly, just 32 behind Antonelli. Leclerc is 71 points behind the championship leader, a gap that has been deemed too excessive by former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer.

Speaking on Formula1.com, Palmer said that he maintains his belief that Leclerc is not a championship challenger, but that he can become an asset for Ferrari in Hamilton's fight against the two Mercedes drivers.

He said: "Of course Kimi Antonelli should have won the British Grand Prix, were it not for his damage so it’s not like Charles has just blown the competition away. Lewis Hamilton found himself less happy with his Ferrari too for the Grand Prix part of the weekend.

Palmer is not the only former F1 figure who believes Ferrari should put their focus behind Hamilton in the championship fight against Antonelli and George Russell.

Ferrari's former race engineer, Rob Smedley, believes Hamilton is Ferrari's "only chance" of beating Mercedes, despite Leclerc having the advantage over the seven-time world champion at Silverstone.

When asked on the High Performance Racing podcast whether Ferrari could have swapped the cars during the British GP, Smedley, who most notably worked as Felipe Massa's race engineer, replied: "100% agree with that."

He added: "I think that if they play the game of trying to outpace Mercedes in car terms, and then they play the game of allowing the drivers to race each other with such a big gap between Lewis and Charles, the probability significantly diminishes for them to win the drivers' world championship.