Ex Ferrari Boss Reveals Why Charles Leclerc is Not Number 1 Driver Material

Published 11/06/2019, 6:41 AM EST

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Since Charles Leclerc joined Ferrari he has been viewed by many Ferrari fans as the second coming for the team. Naturally, it threatened Sebastian Vettel’s status as the numero uno driver in the outfit.

It has already been well established that Scuderia Ferrari operated with a number one-number two system. So, the 2020 season was always going to put them in a bit of a fix, in order to decide who will be the team leader.

Ex Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo insists that this model is the right one for the Italian team. However, he does not believe that Charles Leclerc is number one driver material just yet.

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“I always bet on one driver who wins the title and the other is there to win points for the constructors’ championship,” Montezemolo said to Italian Radio Rai. “I think one of the problems Ferrari had this year was that they had to manage two top drivers like Vettel and Leclerc.”

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via Imago

“I think a lot about Ferrari’s future. Leclerc is a very fast young driver. He surprised everyone and nobody expected him to be so fast in his first year, but he talks too much on the radio.He is very good, but we have to be careful. He has to grow over time, but not too fast.”

Although Leclerc is 19 points ahead of the more experienced Vettel it would be difficult to decide the number one driver status at Ferrari next season. Montezemolo previously criticised Leclerc after his outburst at the Singapore Grand Prix. At that time, Sebastian Vettel executed the undercut to perfection and won the race.

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Leclerc was understandably not happy at all and he went off on the radio during the race. However, Montezemolo admitted that had he been in charge, he would not have tolerated such behaviour.

via Imago

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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