“He needed a little bit longer than expected,” Alfa Romeo sporting director opines on Charles Leclerc’s rookie season in F1
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Zehnder and Leclerc
Charles Leclerc made his Formula One debut for the Alfa Romeo F1 team in 2018 and its Sporting Director Beat Zehnder has revealed that the Monegasque took longer to adapt to the demands of the sport than was expected.
Charles Leclerc arrived in F1 with a lot of accolades behind him as before his F1 debut, he was able to win GP3 and Formula2 in consecutive seasons.
On the back of a solid rookie season, Leclerc was promoted to Ferrari in 2019, during his tenure with Alfa Romeo he was able to beat former teammate, Marcus Ericsson 17-4 during which he put many solid performances. He managed to finish P7 in all of his last four races for the team in a car that was not as competitive as some of the others.
However, despite the performances, Zehnder has indicated that Leclerc was not able to properly get to grips with the Alfa Romeo that he was driving in 2018.
While talking about Charles Leclerc’s exploits for the Sauber team, Zehnder said, “Very talented, he needed a little bit longer than expected.”
“I think the first point he scored [was] in Baku if I’m not mistaken. Until that race, he struggled because the driving style needed for a Formula 1 car was a little different than the F2 [car].”
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Alfa Romeo expected Charles Leclerc to start delivering straightway when he got in their car in 2019
Charles Leclerc took his sweet time in adjusting to the different demands of F1 and as someone who is known to raise his hand whenever he made a mistake, both Leclerc and Zehnder expected positive outcomes at a brisk pace.
Beat Zehnder has been around F1 for a long time and has overseen the debut seasons of prolific drivers like Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. He believes that Charles Leclerc is also right up there with the best that he has worked with in his career.
While talking about it Zehnder said, “All of us, we expected for him to adapt a little bit quicker as I think he expected it from himself as well.”
“But in the end, bottom line, [he is] probably the most complete driver I’ve worked with in terms of natural talent, in terms of intelligence, race intelligence, and then just like he’s so focused, and he’s going to be a World Champion.”
The Alfa Romeo Sporting Director has put his money on Charles Leclerc to become a World Champion in F1, however, the way 2022 has panned out for the Monegasque, it seems he might have to wait for another year.
Charles Leclerc is currently 80 points behind Max Verstappen in the Constructors Championship, and, considering that there are only 9 races left in the 2022 season, it is going to be an extremely tough task for the Monegasque.
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