Charles Leclerc - 2019 Ferrari F1 Driver?

Paul Jeffrey

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Charles Leclerc For Ferrari 2019.jpg

Another standout performance from Charles Leclerc opens interesting possibilities for a potential Ferrari drive in 2019.

Sauber youngster Charles Leclerc scored points for the second consecutive Grand Prix in Barcelona this weekend, continuing a rich run of form that lives up to the substantial hype surrounding this young driver, leaving one to wonder, is the Monegasque youngster setting himself up to become a Ferrari driver in 2019?

With Kimi Räikkönen heading into the sunset of a spectacular career and many of the big names in Formula One racing through the final years of their careers, can the recent eye catching performances of Ferrari junior driver Leclerc prove to be enough to entice the Scuderia into making a move to put the 20 year-old into one of their Grand Prix cars as early as next season, and if so, do you think the 2017 Formula Two champion has what it takes to race at the very front of the Grand Prix grid?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Charles Leclerc For Ferrari 2019 2.jpg
 
Why wait ? he obviously got talent, it would be a shame to waste more years into a mid/bottom team.
Max got his chance so why not leclerc, both are talented
 
If he had after this race more good races.. than maybe. I hope so but Ferrari is no Redbull if it goes on young driver tallent. Strange politic. If Enzo Ferrari still lived there was no doubt. He had done it.
 
As a fan of the sport? Hell yes, put the kid in a fast car and see what happens! Hopefully he either wows us or completely melts down.

Putting myself in Ferrari's shoes though, it's way too early to tell. Leclerc is an interesting talent and these teams are all keeping an eye on him, but Ferrari is such a well eatablished and deep pocketed team, unless there is someone out there who is showing themselves to be a superlative talent, I think Ferrari can just sit back and let the talent come to them.
 

Ghoults

Lasse Luisu
He seems to be doing good job but there are some unknowns. His team mate is not exactly the best of drivers and LecLerc is not decidedly beating ericsson (like bottas did with massa or how massa did with stroll). He is getting good race results for sauber but ericsson is always behind him closely which tells me the car is also very good. I did vote yes but in retrospect I'd want to see more.

Also I don't think ferrari is a good place for young driver. It is very political team with lots of different groups inside pulling in different directions. You simply need to be older to have the life experience to deal with that without escalating things any further. Was it any other team I'd be more willing to say he is looking really good so far but ferrari for your 2nd year in f1? I don't think it is necessarily good for either party. That being said you rarely get more than one chance. If the next year's sauber is another trash bin then people will quickly forget LecLerc no matter how well he drives when he is at the back of the grid.
 
Way too soon to make that call.

Bit off topic but you know who I'm still surprised didn't get a major seat, pascal wehrlein. He got a marusia in to Q3 at Austria. I thought he showed a lot of promise.
 
Why should Ferrari left Kimi? He's proving to be as fast as Vettel this year, without his known bad luck he would be in contention for the championship.
IMO Ferrari should keep this line-up for 2019 ( if Kimi doesn't retire) and then in 2020 bring in Leclerc.
I would be happy to see Leclerc replacing Grosjean next year.
 

ME9Swe

I know, he thinks he's quick, but he's not
I dont think Ferrari will take him just yet

My predictions will be probably be that Haas, a ferrari backed team, might snatch him next year. Give him a year at Haas in a reasonably competitive car and with a more quick teammate, see how he fares, and then eventually to Ferrari.
 

ME9Swe

I know, he thinks he's quick, but he's not
I think Riccardo should go to Ferrari so Hülkenberg can go to Red Bull. Or the other way around

I cant see Hulkenburg going to Red Bull. Teams like Red Bull and Torro Rosso tend to sign Red Bull backed drivers. I think Renault will keep Hulk for the foreseeable future
 
If they stop screwing Raikkonen around, they will retain him again for 2019.
If Grosjean doesn't stop wrecking himself every other race, they will put pressure on Haas to place Leclerc there instead.

Ferrari will not put a young driver in their factory team until they deem him/her ready and despite his talent, Leclerc isn't. He will drive for Ferrari one day, but that day is still at least a couple of years off. Just as Bianchi was supposed to. Poor guy had to suffer through a few years with Marussia/Manor until he died.

For comparison, how many years did Bottas do at Williams before being called to the factory team? 2 or 3? Same with Ocon now. RedBull doesn't count, all they do is screw their own drivers around day in and day out. Hartley won't last until the end of the season, all the others before him were sacked for reasons that would have had Verstappen banned from racing if they gave them all the same treatment. What else is left? McLaren? They tried Perez and he sucked so much that they kicked him out. Magnussen? Same thing. Vandoorne? He's there just because Button decided to retire and with the Honda shitshow going on at the time they couldn't sign anyone else.

It's the same reason why Alesi Jr is still "stuck" in GP3 and Schumacher Jr is still "stuck" in F3. The former will most likely move to F2 next year. For the latter, they have him still racing for Prema (which is backed directly by Ferrari) despite him not being officially part of the FDA. Which team would allow a non-factory driver driving for the factory-backed team unless they have plans and contracts already in place? That expensive seat could've gone to one of the other FDA drivers, but they retained somebody that is outside of it.

These things take time. Verstappen's example is irrelevant aswell, or perhaps it's relevant, but for the wrong reasons. Because it shows that such a talent is going to waste with how immature his race craft and attitude are.

What they need at Ferrari right now is somebody that can bring the car in the top3, and that somebody is still Raikkonen. He's down in the standings, but none of those results were his fault. Either they screwed his strategy, or they screwed his pitstops, or they screwed his car. Everything that often resulted in DNFs.

People wishing for him to get sacked just so that another one that has yet to prove his real potential can have a go, are just delusional.

tl;dr
No, Leclerc should stay as far away from Ferrari as possible for the time being. At the risk of wasting his prime years, he's still not Ferrari material. Ferrari never hire young drivers for their main factory team. The last one was Massa, and still, not only he was much older than Leclerc when he first had his debut, but that happened after driving for Sauber for a couple of years.
 
He won Formula 3 the first year, and next season he won the formula 2. 2 consecutive races in points with a sauber and 2 seconds faster per lap on race with his team mate.

Hamilton with no experience was so close to win the world championship on his debut.

Why not? #GoLeclerc
 
D

Deleted member 113561

  • Deleted member 113561

I wish he could, but Ferrari won't take that risk and put a driver in his 2nd year in their car. They rarely did in the past!
1 more year for Räikkönen, then 2020 LeClerc. Meanwhile LeClerc hopefully stays at Sauber for 2019.
 
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