Charles Leclerc’s adaptation to F1 at Sauber ‘took longer than expected’

Alfa Romeo sporting director Beat Zehnder believes Charles Leclerc took a little while to warm up in Formula 1, after taking a Sauber seat in 2018.

The Monégasque driver came straight into the top tier of motorsport with high pedigree, off the back of the then-unprecedented feat winning the Formula 3/GP3 and Formula 2 titles in consecutive seasons, which George Russell and Oscar Piastri have also since achieved.

Leclerc was promoted to a senior Ferrari seat after just one year at Sauber, out-qualifying team-mate Marcus Ericsson 17-4 over the course of the season and putting in some impressive performances along the way – each of his last four race finishes that year being P7 in lower midfield machinery.

But despite the headline performances later in the year, he could not quite get to grips with what he was driving to begin with.

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“Very talented, he needed a little bit longer than expected,” Zehnder told Formula 1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“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].”

Leclerc is also famously a particularly harsh critic upon his own driving, having regularly chastised himself publicly for mistakes he has made in the past, and Zehnder acknowledged both he and the team thought he would come out of the blocks faster than he did.

Zehnder, a decades-long stalwart of the Hinwil-based team, now racing as Alfa Romeo, has seen plenty of young talents make their way through into Formula 1 in the past – not least the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in their debut seasons – and he feels Leclerc is right up there with the best he has worked with.

“All of us, we expected for him to adapt a little bit quicker as I think he expected it from himself as well,” Zehnder explained.

“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.”

After a flying start to the season, Leclerc has since fallen 80 points behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the top of the Drivers’ Championship, with nine races to go this season.

Ferrari have fallen on their own sword strategically on more than one occasion this season, which has led to doubts about their title-winning credentials.