Charles Leclerc is no doubt a very talented and highly rated driver. The Monegasque has shown his incredible ability to extract the best out of even a lackluster car over the last couple of years. This has caused him to be compared to F1 legend and Alpine driver Fernando Alonso. However, not everyone seems satisfied by this comparison. Former Ferrari sporting director Cesare Fiorio doesn’t rate the Scuderia ace as highly as the two-time world champion at this stage of his career.

Speaking to FormulaPassion, Fiorio said (translated via Google), “If Leclerc is worth the young Alonso? In my opinion Leclerc is worth Sainz, because the latter is second to none in the race. 

“The parallel with Alonso seems a bit disproportionate to me, because Leclerc despite being very strong and able to score incredible times by qualifying the car as well as the possibilities of the vehicle still makes a few mistakes. Alonso at the time committed less.”

Not a lot of people can actually measure up to what Alonso achieved at that age. The Spaniard, after all, won back-to-back world titles aged just 26. Leclerc may be a couple of years younger than when Alonso won his first crown, but it doesn’t appear as though the Monegasque will be able to win a title so soon.

However, the reason for that isn’t skepticism over his craft, rather the primary reason being the presence of a certain Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen on the grid. Although a fellow driver reckons he’ll be mixing it at the top soon.

Fiorio believes Carlos Sainz is as good as Charles Leclerc

The former sporting director at the Maranello-based outfit is happy with Sainz‘s rapid progress with a new team. He believes Sainz’s race pace is as good as that of Leclerc, which is some high praise considering the kind of results Charles has pulled out in a lackluster car over the last year.

Fiorio said, “In my opinion Sainz is very strong and in the race he is already strong like Leclerc, in qualifying he still makes some mistakes, probably because he doesn’t know the car well yet, but he is certainly a driver who is a guarantee.”

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In Leclerc and Sainz, the Scuderia certainly have a very good duo for the foreseeable future. The two Ferrari drivers performed admirably in the last weekend. Leclerc came home in P4 ahead of the Spaniard who crossed the checkered flag in P5.

The team will be hoping both drivers can continue to perform in that manner as they chase the unofficial title of ‘the best of the rest’ in 2021.