Charles Leclerc has taken a U-turn on his Lewis Hamilton commitment. Earlier this year, the news of the 7-time champion’s Ferrari move kept social media ablaze for weeks on end. While experts analyzed the sporting impact of it, fans couldn’t help but visualize their future teammates collaborating on a music album. After all, they are the only two drivers on the grid with proven talent in the art form. Leclerc has three piano singles and an international album with French pianist Sofiane Pamart. And Hamilton, besides rapping in a Christina Aguilera song under his musical alter-ego XNDA, has unreleased music that he has shown to his fans on Instagram Live.

This line of thought eventually consumed the F1 media, and F1TV presenter Will Buxton relayed the fan sentiment to Charles Leclerc during pre-season testing. Initially, the Monegasque was hesitant to say yes or no. “If it’s what everybody wants to know, then I’m not sure, to be honest. I don’t know. I haven’t spoken about music too much with Lewis yet,” he added. However, he did reveal having a conversation with Hamilton in 2023 and promised to “speak with him from next year onwards about a potential collaboration.”

Fast forward six months to today, and Leclerc is no longer sure about being up for that collab. On F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, host Tom Clarkson followed up on Will Buxton’s question. “Did you discuss the duet yet?” he asked. “I told him,” the Ferrari driver replied, and you could hear a broad smile gracing his face. “But we have very different genres. So it’s going to be difficult to do a mix of my music and his music,” he disappointingly added. “But why not? Maybe one day, I don’t know… I don’t know. I think it’ll be very difficult to mix our music,” he reemphasized, drowning out the hopes of their fanbases.

This puts a dampener on the hopes of F1 fans, who were expecting some extraordinary off-track stuff from their to-be teammates. However, this wasn’t something that would take center stage when they line up in the same car next year. The focus will remain on the aftermath of Ferrari‘s gamble, which Leclerc is positive about.

Charles Leclerc is thrilled by the thought of Lewis Hamilton’s “amazing” presence at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton has the Midas touch. Any project that he takes up, he sees through to success. Be it his passion for music and movies or his charitable foundations like Mission 44 and The Hamilton Commission, the impact is astounding. Having such a maestro teammate at Ferrari next year excites Charles Leclerc.

Talking about the kind of impact that the 7-time champion will bring to Maranello, Leclerc said, “I mean, obviously, extremely positive. I think when a champion like Lewis gets to any team, it brings a lot of motivation out of every single person out of the team.”

After analyzing the team perspective, he spoke about the changes he expects on a personal level. “Obviously, for me, it’s going to be amazing, because I’ll have in the same car as me the most successful driver in F1 history, and that will be both extremely interesting for me to learn from one of the best ever, as well as a really big challenge and motivation to beat Lewis and to show what I’m capable of.”

Musical collaboration or not, fireworks are guaranteed at Ferrari next year. But as far as the current season goes, Hamilton (in P6) trails Leclerc (in P3) in the drivers’ championship by 27 points in his final year with Mercedes. With the Dutch GP up next, future teammates could come to blows with Ferrari’s floor upgrades set to match Mercedes at the front.