Formula One: Charles Leclerc tipped to land Sauber ride in 2018
By Asher Fair
Last year’s GP3 Series champion and this year’s Formula 2 champion Charles Leclerc looks poised to drive for Sauber in the 2018 Formula One season.
Charles Leclerc is arguably the best non-Formula One driver who has aspirations of becoming one in a full-time role in the near future. The 20-year-old Monégasque driver is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and he just won this year’s Formula 2 title in dominant fashion after winning last year’s 2016 GP3 Series championship in comfortable fashion as well.
Leclerc may just get the opportunity to drive full-time in Formula One next season, and he may get the chance to do so with Sauber, which could lead to a full-time role with Scuderia Ferrari in the 2019 season if the team does not opt to give 38-year-old Kimi Raikkonen, who hasn’t won a race in the better part of the last five years, a fourth straight one-year deal. Plus, Sauber signed a technical partnership with Ferrari for 2018.
Now, a ride with Sauber likely wouldn’t result in any great results for Leclerc. After all, the team is dead last in the constructor standings this season with just five points, and their two full-time drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson, sit in an 18th place tie and 20th place in the drivers standings, respectively.
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However, a ride with Sauber for Leclerc would give Ferrari an opportunity to assess him in a competition-based environment within Formula One itself before deciding on whether or not to pursue signing him in the 2019 season to team up with four-time Formula One championship Sebastian Vettel, whose contract extension with the team does not expire until after the 2020 season.
Last season, Leclerc test drove for Ferrari and Haas, and this season, he has test driven for Ferrari and Sauber. He drove in four Formula One practices for Haas last season, and he recently secured a deal to drive in four more this season for Sauber, of which two he has already completed in Malaysia and the United States. He is set to drive in practice in two of the remaining three races of the 2017 season in Mexico and Brazil as well.
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With everything pointing toward the Sauber F1 Team as Charles Leclerc’s likely destination in the 2018 season, will that deal end up happening or will unforeseen circumstances prevent it from coming to fruition? If it does happen, will he excel in his role to the point where Ferrari signs him for the 2019 season? We should know a lot more relatively soon.