Charles Leclerc -A new highly talented driver for Ferrari.
Charles Leclerc (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl ləklɛʁ]; born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver, currently driving in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. Leclerc won the GP3 Series championship in 2016 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2017. He made his Formula One debut in 2018 for Sauber, a team affiliated with Ferrari, for which he was part of its driver academy. With Sauber having finished last the year before, Leclerc led the charge to improve the finishing position in the constructors' championship to eighth, being the highest ranked of the two Sauber drivers.
Leclerc has agreed on a contract with Ferrari for the 2019 season where he will drive alongside Sebastian Vettel
During his childhood, the Monaco-born Leclerc was a friend of the late Jules Bianchi from nearby Nice, who won his first racing championship when Leclerc was 10 years old. Leclerc began karting at the track managed by Bianchi's father in Brignoles. Like Bianchi, Leclerc joined the ARM management company headed by Nicolas Todt. In an interview in 2018, Leclerc revealed that Bianchi was also his godfather.
Leclerc has an older brother, Lorenzo, and a younger brother, Arthur. His father, Hervé, also raced cars, driving in Formula 3 in the 1980s and 1990s, and was well respected in karting. He died after a long illness, aged 54, just four days before his son won the feature race at the 2017 Formula 2 Baku weekend.
He has been in a relationship with Italian Giada Gianni since January 2015.
Karting:
Leclerc began his karting career in 2005, winning the French PACA Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2008. In 2009 he became French Cadet champion before moving up to the KF3 class in 2010, where he won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup. He continued in the KF3 class for 2011, winning the CIK-FIA KF3 World Cup, the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy and the ERDF Junior Kart Masters. During the year, Leclerc also became a member of Nicolas Todt's All Road Management company.
Leclerc graduated to the KF2 category in 2012 with the factory-backed ART Grand Prix team, winning the WSK Euro Series title, as well as finishing runner-up in the CIK-FIA European KF2 Championship and the CIK-FIA Under 18 World Karting Championship.
In his final year of karting in 2013, Leclerc claimed sixth position in the CIK-FIA European KZ Championship and finished second in the CIK-FIA World KZ Championship, behind current Red Bull Formula One driver Max Verstappen.
Sebastian Vettel's 2018 Formula One season can be summed up in one phrase: "unfulfilled promise". That promise started early on and it looked, for a while, that the season would go down to the wire. As it was, his own errors and Lewis Hamilton's brilliance meant the Briton's fifth title became a formality from Singapore onwards.
Although they will want to finish the season on a high in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari can start to look towards 2019. Vettel can do so, too, but with it comes a fresh challenge posed by a new team-mate. 
And again the version for Smartphones. Just click the picture on and it will enlarge:
Out goes the long-standing, steady number two driver in Kimi Raikkonen and in comes the, talented youngster, Charles Leclerc. Could the 21-year-old Monegasque even beat the four-time champion?
In his four years at Ferrari Vettel has had the trusty Kimi Raikkonen as his companion - a steady team-mate whose finest form is well behind him but who is a willing wingman and capable of contributing to the team cause. Despite a resurgent season, Raikkonen has not regularly challenged his team-mate. Over their four seasons together the German has scored nearly 30 per cent more points than Raikkonen.
The last time Vettel had a team-mate who actually challenged him? 2014. The driver was Daniel Ricciardo, who was in his first season at Red Bull. The Australian took three wins that season (Vettel none) and scored 238 points to his team-mate's 167. Until this year, it was probably Vettel's most difficult season.
Leclerc's arrival presents Vettel with a similar situation, albeit without huge regulation changes as a backdrop. Will the Scuderia still favour the German? Leclerc is, after all, their academy driver and one of their own. He is, if all goes well, where their future is.
Leclerc has done everything he could have done as a rookie. Yes, he has been helped by an improved Sauber team but he has still blown away his team-mate. Especially in the qualifying he only was beind Ericsson the first two races. From this point on he won every single Qualifying agtainst Ericsson.
I guess nobody since Ayrton Senna was such a good qualifier from his first season onwards!
Marcus Ericsson may not be the most highly rated driver on the grid but he has competed in nearly 100 grands prix and in 2018 has achieved some decent results. His team-mate's record speaks for itself. 27 points to Ericsson's nine and eight points finishes. He has clearly not been fazed by the demands of his first season in F1. Ferrari is a different matter.
Unlike Raikkonen, the Scuderia's new recruit will not be employed to be a malleable, solid and reliable back-up to their main man. The Monegasque has shown his talent this season, with Ferrari promoting him after less than a full season in F1. It is a statement of both intent and faith.
Leclerc has done everything he could have done as a rookie. Yes, he has been helped by an improved Sauber team but he has still blown away his team-mate. Especially in the qualifying he only was beind Ericsson the first two races. From this point on he won every single Qualifying agtainst Ericsson.
There will be a lot of pressure on Leclerc. More than he can currently know. Putting in occasionally eye-catching performances in a midfield car is not the same as having to deliver every week at the front. Raikkonen, for all his faults in his second stint at Ferrari, has done that well in 2018 with 11 podiums including one victory. Will Leclerc be able to deliver that consistency in only his second season?
It would be wrong to look at 2019 as a make or break for Vettel. He is, after all, a big factor in his team's recent revival. But he has also been a factor in their failures in 2017 and more prominently 2018. Would Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton have made the same costly mistakes?
In terms of his reputation, it is a big moment. Deliver a championship for Ferrari and all is good. Even great. Get beaten (comfortably or otherwise) by a fresh and talented team-mate and his standing will be reduced and his future at Ferrari will be called into question. A cool and laid-back man outside of the cockpit, Vettel has a tendency towards impetuosity in the car when things do not go his way. If Leclerc starts quickly, he could get really under his team-mate's skin.
Vettel will of course back himself. And so he should. This year he has been beaten by Lewis Hamilton on his absolute best form. His own mistakes have been amplified as a result. You do not suddenly become a bad driver. He has comfortably beaten Raikkonen in the past three years and will do so again in 2018.
Charles Leclerc is an unknown. That should be exciting for fans - especially the tifosi - and slightly worrying for Vettel. Leclerc's outlook and situation could hardly be different to Raikkonen's. We have a young man at the start of his career, being given a dream seat and a man who, still quick, but with his best years and probably most of his drive behind him. There is still a while to wait yet but Vettel vs Leclerc will be one of the most fascinating stories to follow in 2019.
Me personally I am enthusiastic about his epic brilliance when it comes to overtaking, as well as his qualifying speed!
He is not less aggressive than Max Verstappen, but he has a god given instinct to assess the situation correctly! With that said he isn´t less aggressive than Verstappen, but he get´s all his spectacular overtakes done without crashing into another car (which often happened to Verstappen the last years).
He is aggressive, spectacular, has an epic instinct to assess the situation correctly, but still is fair and leaves his opponents enough space, so he doesn´t force them off the track or crashes into them!
This video shows exactly one of a few other things that fascinate me about him!
I started being a fan of Charles Leclerc after I watched him in Formula 2. I really hopes at that time that we will sonn see him in Formula one!
However I didn´t expect that it would be so soon!
What I especially liked abou´t him, was his outstanding ability to overtake other drivers, but beside that hhe also was extremely good in qualifying.
Now many people say, his first year cannot say much because he had Ericsson as teammate and Ericsson is not known for being a top driver. However my analysis comes to a different result!
If people say that Ericsson isn't much of a benchmark for him, this might be true, but Ericsson hasn't been as bad as people say in general especially over one lap. With said that we have to compare Ericsson to his oter teammates before coming to any conclusion! Especially the qualifying pace is very interesting in this comparison.
Last year he went up against the fairly highly Wehrlein, which to Pascal's credit he was also a rookie. Wehrlein held a very narrow qualifying edge of 11-8 over Ericsson, which wasn't a bad result. Pleaase remember that many people said Mercedes should replace Bottas by Pascal Wehrlein as in their oppinion Pascal Wehrlein would be more able to challenge Hamilton than Bottas. Bottas dissappointed in some ways against Hamilton and was never really able to changelle Hamilton. So the majority of people had more trust in the skills of Wehrlein!
Prior to Wehrlein, he went up against Nasr, who was also reasonably highly rated (although maybe incorrectly). Their quali pace during their time together was in Ericsson's favour, slightly, with him beating Nasr 13-7 in 2016 and him losing 9-10 in 2015 for a total of 22-17 in Ericsson's favour!
Overall against these two drivers who most consider fairly promising they had more or less equal quali pace against Ericsson, within the normal very slim margins anyway.
So far Leclerc only was beaten by Ericsson twice in qualifying, namely in the first two traces!
With that said, the two times Ericsson did qualify ahead of Leclerc were when Leclerc had just entered the sport as a rookie, since then its been straight for Charles and usually the gaps weren´t small. From the third race onwards Charles Leclerk won every single qualifying against his teammate Ericsson. The last time a rookie was that dominant in qualifing against his teammate right from the start, was nobody less than Ayrton Senna! Leclerc looks on a completely different planet to Ericsson generally.
So Marcus Ericsson compared to his other team mates hasn't been embarrassing at all, he's had fairly similar pace to them. So Leclerc being so far ahead straight away is indicative of him having frightening potential.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leclerc_(racing_driver)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/formula-1/20...c-ferrari-team/
