Between the sparkling palm trees in the paddock of Bahrain, you have to find the tracks of Charles Leclerc. Potential for sustainable success is to certify but Sebastian Vettel with his new Ferrari team-mate.
Despite the disappointing formula-1-season starts for the Scuderia has Leclerc as the successor of Vettel’s feel-good partner Kimi Raikkonen is no doubt the Ferrari’s progress in the second Grand Prix of the year on Sunday (17.10 Uhr/RTL and Sky) in Sakhir.
“I don’t think we have any fundamental problems with the car, I’m pretty confident,” said Leclerc in the paddock, which is lined with strings of lights adorning the palm trees. “It is simply a matter of fine-tuning.”
Leclerc belongs to the makeover of the Scuderia. The is also necessary. In 2007, Raikkonen was the last driver-world champion in Red, in 2008, brought the Italians for the last time in the constructors ‘ championship. So the Swiss Mattia Binotto, as the engines took over from engineer to Michael Schumacher’s title series involved, the Italian Maurizio Arrivabene. And Ferrari-pupil of Leclerc Vettel’s buddy extruded Raikkonen to Alfa Romeo.
“It’s still pretty fresh, therefore, it is not so much a relationship,” said Vettel about his relationship to the 21-year-old Monegasque Leclerc. “He is a very young and talented Boy. I am sure that he will leave his mark in this year and in the next few years.”
impression has not made Leclerc last year in the unsuccessful Alfa Romeo-Clean. This brought him to the carriage. In Australia, where he went for the first time for Ferrari on the Start, found the Italians, while the optimal tuning for the car. Leclerc was in the final phase, however, so quickly, that the Command is not slowed, to displace Vettel from fourth place.
“I pretty much made a lot of mistakes in qualifying and during the race. I’m going to try that this will not be repeated,” said Leclerc, who is not only very Mature, but also self-critical and ambitious. The number-one-Status of Vettel impressed him even before the start of the season is not very. “If Mattia should have the Problem of having two quick drivers-volume, then that is a good sign for me.”
Leclerc’s father was a racing driver, Hervé Leclerc contested races in the ‘ 90s formula 3. The longing for the pace brought forth in his son, then creativity. “I told my father that it is good for me, then I could ditch school and I’m with Jules on the go-kart track in Brignoles,” said Leclerc.
Jules was Jules Bianchi, the former formula 1-Pilot. On the between Marseille and nice, the nearby go-kart course by his father Philippe, the young Leclerc for the first time, Gas, and Jules was a kind of Mentor. In October 2014, accident Bianchi at the Grand Prix of Japan hard, nine months later, he succumbed to his injuries. It was a shock for Leclerc.
“Even after his accident in Suzuka, I had never the slightest doubt as to my future,” said Leclerc. “Afraid? No, there is not. I am aware that danger is part of racing, but if I’m sitting in the Cockpit, I feel shock, only the Adrenali. I like danger, I like the adrenaline and I have to race.”
Leclerc’s doing this with success. In 2016 he was GP3 champion, 2017 champion in the formula 2, and was already part of the Ferrari Junior program. As Bianchi in front of him. But the death of his friend was not the only brutal loss. In the summer of 2017 Leclerc’s father died after a severe illness. Only three days later, the Junior sat back in the car and raced in Baku to the Pole. On his Prema car Leclerc had the lettering “I love you dad” painting.
“For each, it is hard to lose his father. I was able to leave me but before the race weekend, not destroy it, because the racing was everything for my father, he was my biggest Fan,” said the son. Strange as it blade, acknowledged Leclerc, by the blows of fate he had become “stronger” and “within a short period of time grown up”. This development process should have started when Vettel’s team-mate in formula 1.
dpa
