Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley has warned Charles Leclerc that he will be signing his own 'death warrant' if he allows Lewis Hamilton to be the main man at Ferrari.
Hamilton is leaving Mercedes at the end of the season, having struggled while racing for the Silver Arrows over the past three years.
The 39-year-old will come in as a replacement for Carlos Sainz, with Hamilton and Leclerc set for an intriguing partnership over in Maranello.
It remains to be seen who will be the main man when they start working together next year.
Charles Leclerc has been warned about signing his own 'death warrant' when Lewis Hamilton moves to Ferrari
PA
But Priestley has warned Leclerc that he'd be signing his own 'death warrant' if he allows Hamilton to take centre stage.
"Leclerc is reasonably experienced now, he has a few years under his belt and is not a rookie," he told OLBG.
"If a driver accepts they're going to be the second driver of the team, you sign your own death warrant and lose performance from that.
"Leclerc needs to come into the team next year, thinking he'll be better than Hamilton."
He added: "F1 is a sport in which a huge part is technical with that car, but a huge part is the driver's confidence in his own ability.
"My experience from driving pairing, particularly new ones, is they will be best of friends in the beginning and have massive respect for each other.
"But that can all change if Hamilton and Leclerc are competing for a title against each other."
There have been claims that Hamilton has 'never really been happy' racing alongside George Russell.
And he infamously fell out with Nico Rosberg when they were also team-mates at Mercedes.
The intensity of their rivalry was so big that Rosberg walked away from F1 after winning the title in 2016.
And Priestley fears a repeat could happen with Hamilton and Leclerc due to their big reputations in the sport.
"Could Charles Leclerc be the next Nico Rosberg when Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari? You never know," he said.
"A good example of that was the 'duel in the desert' in 2014, they battled and swapped positions multiple times.
"They got out of their cars and joked about it, high-fived each other and said how great of a race it was.
"But that didn't continue for very long because there was a championship at stake, the guy who you're hugging early in the season becomes your enemy.
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Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will be team-mates at Ferrari next season
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"Rosberg and Hamilton had great respect towards each other until they became rivals in a championship, and the same could happen with Leclerc."
Meanwhile, back in February, Leclerc insisted he was enthused about Hamilton's arrival - despite what it could mean for him and his role at Ferrari.
“Well, obviously these kind of deals are not finalised overnight, so it takes of course time," he said.
“I was aware of those discussions before signing my [new] deal. It didn’t come out as a surprise after signing.
“For the rest, I don’t want to comment on it much, mostly out of respect for Carlos [Sainz].
Charles Leclerc currently sits third in the F1 standings
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"We’ve had great years together and we have one more together to do. We will do absolutely everything to finish on the highest note possible.
“Obviously Lewis is an incredible driver, the most successful in history, with a lot of experience as well, which he will bring to the team and obviously myself, which is a good thing.”
