Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc shared a game of chess in The O2 (Image: Paris Match)
and were spotted playing chess on their phones during Tuesday night’s F1 75 Live event at The O2. The two team-mates enjoyed their first battle of the season before greeting the adoring British crowd on stage.
Tuesday’s F1 75 Live was a certified success for the series, showcasing all 10 new liveries in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,000 fans. The 20 drivers all got to greet the crowd, with Hamilton donning the overalls on home soil for the first time towards the end of the evening.
However, with the teams appearing in reverse Constructors’ Championship order from 2024, there was plenty of time for Hamilton and Leclerc to pass as they waited for their big moment. The pair hatched a creative solution, pulling out their phones and starting a head-to-head battle over a game of virtual chess.
Clips of the interaction went viral on social media, sparking a fan frenzy, and even event host Jack Whitehall saw the funny side of the situation, taking to the X social media platform to post: “A lot of my audiences resort to this.”
The Bad Education star was a popular selection for the show, and he pulled no punches as he made fun of , Valtteri Bottas, and , among others.
Hamilton and Leclerc’s chess antics are a positive sign that their relationship is in the right place heading into the 2025 campaign. For the latter, the seven-time world champion’s arrival is both a threat to his long-held dominance within the camp and also an opportunity to learn from one of the sport’s all-time greatest stars.
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Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were popular among the British crowd in The O2 (Image: Getty)
“When a champion like Lewis gets to any team, it brings a lot of motivation out of every single person,” he explained after the Brit’s arrival. “He will come along with all the experience that he’s had over the years with – a different way of working, a different vision – and this is always benefitting a team.”
He added: “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. 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.
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“With Lewis joining the team, he will definitely be a benchmark so it will be very important for me to be on my top level.”
After taking to the Fiorano track in the SF-25 in front of the Tifosi on Wednesday, Leclerc declared that he will be “disappointed” should fail to bring home either the Drivers’ Championship or Constructors’ Championship title in 2025.