Charles Leclerc- Ferrari Driver

Thanks, I missed that . For me it was logical to have the information in a "Leclerc" thread...

 

The other thread was still on pg1, otherwise I would have put my post here (lazy this morning )

 

Leclerc has been very loyal to Ferrari despite the team flat out failing him numerous times. He has shown incredible speed and with the right car he has shown capable of battling wheel to wheel with the great Verstappen. I wonder how he feels now that an aging Lewis is coming in to share to spotlight with him.

I think it's a great opportunity to raise his own value. If he beats the 7x champion a lot of people, especially those that believe in Lewis' greatness, will have to concede in believing Leclerc is a phenom. On the flip side, if he loses to a roughly 40 year old driver that should be passed his prime and a guy that got beat by an overrated George Russell... that could be crushing to Leclerc's career.

 

Charles has already shown he can battle Lewis, and win. Give him a reliable car and he will dominate Lewis.

 

Speedwise yes, but to win a WDC, you have to be consistant over a whole season. I haven't seen Leclerc doing that. He has flashes of genius and many poles, that don't translate in good results in the end.
For having done it several times before, Hamilton knows what it takes to win a title, but I don't think he will now.

 

Agree on everything apart the Russell statement.
Hamilton dominated him last year fair and square.

 

That would be logical.
Hamilton should bring something to the team on the technical side.
Charles will benefit of this, no doubt.

 

I absolutely agree, Hamilton smoked Russell. At Williams, Russell was being tipped by the British Media that he was sensational with some untouchable speed. All this being based on beating Latifi. Then Albon goes on and beats Latifi even worse. We then find out that Russell has a hard time delivering in the races, he has an inability to race along other cars without crashing into them. All this and more is why I say George Russell is overrated. I definitely still put Hamilton above him.

 

I agree; Russell's value has really fallen off this past season. He beat a beaten down Hamilton who bounced back to trounce him the following season. The less said about his ability to go wheel-to-wheel, the better.

 

I hope the "kid" won't lose his nerves against a far more experienced team mate.
In pure speed, I rate him only second to Max Verstappen. We have seen what he can deliver in qualifs.
But Charles is prone to mistakes during races.

 

If the rumors of $100 million per year are true. Talk about a huge kick in the jewels to Charles. At the end of the day they are drivers trying to win races for their team. If Ferrari does pay Lewis more than double of what they are paying the driver they devoted their future to, what kind of message does that send to Charles?

 

Absolutely agreed. Charles appears to have the speed, but its time to put up or shut up race after race. Back luck or not, he has to figure out how to deliver race after race. The truly great ones always find a way to maximize what they have or somehow salvage a result on Sundays. Being perfectly honest, Leclerc has the worst track record for moving backwards in a race.

 

Mansell was exactly in the same position compared with Charles until he drove a Williams Honda..
Coincidence ?

 

Can you elaborate? My knowledge on 80's F1 isn't as great as 90s to current.

 

Mansell was a very fast driver at the beginning of the eighties but a error prone one,
He was driving a Lotus while his team mate was Elio de Angelis, a Gp winner.
Everyone was laughing at him because always something happened to prevent him winning a race.
In 1985 he went to a growing Williams Honda with keke Rosberg as a teammate and during the second half of this season he became a real threat and won his first two races.
In 1986-1987 he lost two WDC with the mighty FW11 mainly because of pure bad luck dominating his two times WDC team mate Piquet
My point is :
Mansell and Charles have pure intrinsic speed.
This is a gift.
Maybe Charles only needs a stable and competitive environment to be a reliable driver during races?
According to Ferrari aerodynamicists, SF23 was a very tricky car to drive at the limit until spa last year..
Beginning of 2022 is more representative of Charles race skills I guess..

 

You do have to wonder where Ferrari is at with their head.

The 400 million all in spend (don't forget the DEI donations) would've ensured an utter dream team assemble. Newey, Wache, Waterhouse, to name a few.

 

This is what I have been saying about him for some time now. Leclerc is the type of driver who is going to go for it every time, regardless of the circumstances. It makes sense to me to a large extent, because no one’s winning a championship anyway if the car isn’t competitive and the team isn’t operating as a well-oiled machine. Many talk about how he can’t convert poles to wins, but look at the competition he has been up against: Hamilton/Mercedes and Verstappen/Red Bull! It’s disappointing, but is it really a surprise? I’ve also said that Ferrari has made it a habit of gifting his wins to his teammates at times for morale: Singapore to Vettel and Silverstone to Sainz. Taking all of this into consideration, I think his resilience is actually fairly impressive.

 

I’m MUCH more worried about Ferrari’s PIT WORK and STRATEGIC DECISIONS than I’ll ever be about some of their driver lapses.
The have GOT to get it together to ever be a contender again.

 

That's part of the equation-->the 2 items you mentioned.

 

I would add to this that years of pain at Ferrari reinforce him as a leader.
Now only missing a really competitive and reliable car..
Allô Fred ?

 

Leclerc is like your Jean Behra: fast but untidy. He needs consistancy.

 

Vasseur removed Inaki Rueda, the clown strategist, very soon after he arrived. You seem to have missed that.