Charles Leclerc realized sooner than most drivers who his 2025 group mate was going to be, when Ferrari introduced it was parting methods with Carlos Sainz Jnr on the finish of the season to usher in Lewis Hamilton to Maranello.
Leclerc is not any stranger to a number of world championship profitable group mates, in fact, having raced alongside Sebastian Vettel for 2 seasons and having outperformed him general.
However whereas a lot consideration can be on his incoming group mate for subsequent yr, Leclerc has proven over the primary half of 2024 why he mustn’t worry being overshadowed by Hamilton when the seven-times champion joins his group.
Though Ferrari’s efficiency as much as this stage of the season has not been on the excessive stage both he or his group would have hoped for, Leclerc has tried his greatest all through the season to extract each tenth of efficiency he may discover from the SF24. However whereas he has typically delivered all that Ferrari has requested of him, he has needed to take care of frustrations just a little too typically up to now this season.
The opening spherical in Bahrain was one such instance, the place he needed to cope with a braking downside all through the race which prompted him to run off observe a number of instances with little he may do to foretell how a lot braking drive he would get when he pushed his left foot. Regardless of that, he nonetheless managed to cross George Russell to complete a really stable fourth behind his group mate. He seemed close to sure to take pole in Australia, however solely managed fifth after altering his set-up forward of qualifying didn’t repay for him.
Leclerc’s weekend in Canada was like a dwelling nightmare. He was knocked out in Q2 after Ferrari determined to make use of a single set of softs in a technique name that didn’t work out, then he was left floundering behind the sector on slick tyres on a humid observe within the race after the group pulled a ‘hail mary’ play to try to acquire some floor within the changeable situations. A conflict with Oscar Piastri on the first nook within the Austrian Grand Prix compromised his afternoon, then his British Grand Prix was one other the place a raffle on intermediate tyres proved to be utterly the improper name, leaving him effectively out of competition.
Advert | Turn into a RaceFans supporter and
However though fortune didn’t appear to be smiling on him, Leclerc nonetheless put collectively some very robust weekends. He completed ‘better of the remainder’ in third behind the 2 Crimson Bulls in Jeddah, then took one other podium end in Miami after qualifying on the entrance row of the grid – attaining the perfect end result he may have anticipated each instances. He additionally recovered from a heavy crash in observe at Hungary to maneuver up from sixth on the grid to complete in fourth, beating Sainz who had began forward of him.
Charles Leclerc
| Greatest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 1 (x2) | 11 (x2) |
| GP end | 1 | 14 |
| Factors | 177 | |
The clear spotlight, nevertheless, was Monaco. After years of horrible luck in his house grand prix, Leclerc stormed to a different pole place across the Principality to place himself in the perfect place doable to win. Though the race itself was maybe the best that Leclerc will ever have after a gap lap purple flag meant he may run the ultimate 77 laps with none pit stops, Leclerc had earned his win on Saturday – like most Monaco winners do.
His Belgian Grand Prix weekend was very robust and arguably his greatest three days of the season up to now. At Spa, Ferrari have been clearly not the quickest group out of the 4 on the entrance, but Leclerc nonetheless managed to safe second place in qualifying to inherit pole from Max Verstappen, who had a grid penalty. Though he misplaced the lead of the race early to Hamilton, he confirmed wonderful race tempo and held off Verstappen over the closing laps to complete fourth on the street, solely to be promoted onto the rostrum after the race.
Though he went into the summer season break having scored only a single level lower than his group mate over the 13 rounds they’d each competed in collectively, Leclerc was the higher performing driver by virtually each different metric. Leclerc had out-qualified Sainz extra typically, completed forward extra typically and had spent over 100 extra laps forward of Sainz throughout grands prix. Up to now this season, Leclerc is demonstrating his qualities which have led Ferrari to take a position a lot into him. He’ll doubtless have each confidence that he can go toe-to-toe with Hamilton in 2025.
Advert | Turn into a RaceFans supporter and
