Charles Leclerc’s former teammate Marcus Ericsson feels that the Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver has showed that he is able to challenge for the 2022 Formula 1 world title and urges the Maranello team to back him up by giving him the number one role and doing everything possible to help him fight against Max Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc is currently leading the Drivers’ Championship ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, with an advantage of 19 points over his title rival Max Verstappen, although the Monegasque had a mammoth 46-point lead after the first three rounds, but lost ground in the last two events.
Given the fact that Ferrari has pace as compared to Red Bull, which was clear during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and in Miami, the Swedish racing driver currently competing in the NTT IndyCar Series with Chip Ganassi Racing thinks Scuderia Ferrari should now throw their weight behind Charles Leclerc as they fight for the 2022 F1 titles.
While Charles Leclerc scored two race wins this season and has collected 104 points ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz was able to score just 53 points and suffered two consecutive retirements in Australia and Imola. As a result, Marcus Ericsson urged the Italian side to approach races based on a team hierarchy starting from the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.
“Charles is taking that leader role this year now and they’re gonna have to support him for that championship, I believe so,” – the former Sauber driver said, in an interview for the F1 Nation podcast – “I think the way Carlos has been driving the last couple of weekends, it doesn’t seem like he maybe agrees on that! He’s trying to be ahead of Charles but, like we’ve seen in the past, it’s always good for a team going for a championship to have a clear leader that goes for it, like Max and Lewis [Hamilton] have been the last few years. So I think the support will go in Charles’ corner going forward.” – he added.
Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc raced together for Sauber in 2018, which was the Monegasque driver’s first Formula 1 season after earning a promotion to the sport following his Formula 2 Championship title.
Despite Charles Leclerc’s lack of experience, Marcus Ericsson admitted it was obvious to him straight away that the Ferrari junior had an amazing talent and potential: “I think, already in 2018 when he came into Formula 1, you could tell straight away that he’s an extremely fast race car driver. I think there’s no doubt about that. I think everyone can see that. But also the way he works, his work ethic, you could tell that straight away. He was so determined to do well and to learn, to speak to me, he asked me a lot of questions. I had quite a bit of experience at that point. But he was super fast, straight away, in the car. He’s his own worst critic, he is self-critical when he makes mistakes and owns up to them and learns from them.” – he explained.
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Despite the fact that Charles Leclerc made a costly error at the Imola circuit in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and lost a podium finish while attempting to get close to Sergio Perez, Marcus Ericsson feels that the mental resilience Charles has when it comes to errors makes him a potent threat.
“I think that’s one of the biggest strengths of Charles Leclerc, that he does mistakes sometimes and learns from them, moves on from them, and becomes stronger. He is a cool head and I think he’s gonna thrive [under pressure]. I think he’s gonna do really well with it. From what I saw from being beside him, the more pressure [that] was on him, the better he performed – he was that kind of guy. I think he’s been frustrated the last couple of years because Ferrari hasn’t had the car to really fight up front, and now he has it. From what we’ve seen so far, he seems to be delivering when he has that pressure on him.” – the Swedish racing driver concluded.
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