Formula 1: Charles Leclerc reveals jump from Formula 2 bigger than expected

Alfa Romeo Sauber’s Charles Leclerc revealed that his jump from Formula 2 to Formula 1 was bigger than he expected it would be.

Charles Leclerc, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy who is in his rookie Formula 1 season driving full-time for Alfa Romeo Sauber, revealed that his jump from Formula 2 to Formula 1 was bigger than he expected it would be.

Leclerc, 20, competed full-time in Formula 2 last season for Prema Racing and won the championship with seven victories and 10 podium finishes in 22 races. In the 2016 season, he competed full-time in the GP3 Series for ART Grand Prix and won the championship with three victories and eight podium finishes in 18 races.

Leclerc test drove for the Sauber and Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 teams last year. In 2016, he also test drove for Ferrari, and he test drove for Haas as well. However, he had never driven in a Formula 1 race until the 2018 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix.

Before the 2016 season, Leclerc also competed in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series in the 2014 season and the Formula 3 European Championship in the 2015 season. In the former, he finished in second place in the championship standings with two victories and seven podium finishes in 14 races, and in the latter, he finished in fourth in the standings with four victories and 13 podium finishes in 33 races.

Through seven races of the 2018 Formula 1 season and his Formula 1 career, Leclerc has been impressive. He secured the highest finish for a Sauber driver since the 2015 season by finishing in sixth place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and his point total of 10 greater than the point total of all of Sauber’s drivers combined in their last 94 races prior to Leclerc’s sixth place finish, which goes all the way back to the 2015 season.

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If not for the 10 points that Leclerc, who sits in 14th place in the driver standings, has scored so far this season, Sauber would be in 10th place, last, in the constructor standings, as the only points finish by their other driver, Marcus Ericsson, was a ninth place result in the Bahrain Grand Prix that scored him and the team two points.

Sauber have finished in 10th place in the constructor standings in three of the last four seasons, including twice when it was last or tied for last. Right now, they sit in ninth with 12 points, but they are within striking distance of Haas and Scuderia Toro Rosso, the two teams that are tied for seventh with 19 points each.

But while Leclerc has been extremely impressive in the first seven races of his Formula 1 career to the point where he is in the discussion to potentially replace Kimi Raikkonen if Raikkonen does not sign a new contract to remain with Ferrari in the 2019 season, the Monegasque driver revealed that the jump from Formula 2 to Formula 1 was bigger than he expected it would be.

Here is what Leclerc had to say about the matter, according to Autosport.

"“Even being in this sport since I was three, I did not expect that jump to be so big. The amount of procedures, and changes in driving style, just everything, is a whole step forward. It was difficult for me at the beginning. Maybe what I would have wished is to understand the car a bit quicker, but two races, let’s say three races, to learn completely the car is not huge. If I could have changed something that’s the thing I would have changed.“The weekend overall is very different, a lot more busy with media and everything, but the goal is the same: to do the best job possible in the car. You need to learn how to work with so many people, and for me that was quite difficult in the beginning. In F2 you are only speaking to one person, which is your engineer, but here you have so many people that are taking care of smaller areas than you have in F2. That takes a little bit of time to get used to.“Tyre management is on the same level in F2, but then you have the energy. [You need to consider] when to use the energy, [while] fighting with other drivers who have a lot of experience.”"

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With Charles Leclerc revealing that the jump from Formula 2 to Formula 1 was bigger than he expected it would be, do you expect him to continue to improve throughout the remainder of his rookie season? Do you believe that he will perform at a high enough level for Ferrari to sign him in the 2019 season?

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