Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton take on Baku chess grandmaster in viral clip

A video shared by Formula 1 on Instagram of Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton playing against Azerbaijani chess grandmaster Teimour Radjabov has racked up almost 3 million views at the time of writing. This comes after the two drivers were seen playing each other numerous times so far this season. 

This chess rivalry, first spotted at the F1 75 celebration that launched the 2025 season as the two drivers played each other at their table, has continued to be a talking point this year. Since Hamilton joined the team at the beginning of the season, it has become a viral sensation, and they have both commented on the ongoing rivalry between the two of them.

In February, the Monegasque joked about keeping score as he poked fun at the seven-time champion after beating him. “He’s been great already to start working with Lewis. We’ve had a lot of fun playing chess already,” he said. “I’m beating him by the way. No, no, but he’s been really fun and now we just cannot wait to go out on track.”

Not long after, the competition heated up between the two: “It’s 2-1 for him for now, or 3-2. Something like that. I’m on the back foot but I’m working on my recovery.”

Things started taking a turn, however, when both drivers admitted to cheating while they were playing each other over the internet. 

“So we were in bed… playing chess,” Leclerc said mid-April to laughs from the crowd at the Bahrain Grand Prix. “Not in the same bed, but he was in London. I was in Monaco, and we were playing chess.

“And [Hamilton] doesn’t want to go to sleep being four-four. So he’s like, ‘Let’s do another game,'” he laughed.

Hamilton continued, reflecting on the increasing pressure from his well-practised team-mate. 

“The moves that he was making were so good. And I’m like, ‘dammit, what is the next move,'” he laughed. “So then I thought well, maybe I’ll go online and find some suggestions of what could be next. And so I found this website and it started showing you… it’ll predict what you should do next.

“I used it for one move, and then his moves were so good coming back, I just kept using it. And he goes, ‘Wait a second, are we both cheating?'”

Leclerc still wasn’t happy: “The worst thing is that my bot, the program I was using, was worse than his, so I was cheating and I still lost, and I went to sleep so depressed.”

With this becoming such a viral sensation, it wasn’t long before F1 took this a step further as the series invited Radjabov to play against them. The chess grandmaster born in Baku, earned the title when he was just 14 years old, becoming the second-youngest grandmaster in the game’s history. In 2021, he hit a peak rating of 2793, ranking him fourth in the world. It comes as no surprise that he beat the Ferrari drivers before they each exchanged handshakes, grinning ear-to-ear. 

Photos from Azerbaijan GP – Practice