FIA president Jean Todt and F1 technical director Ross Brawn – both key figures in Michael Schumacher’s dominant early-2000s run with Scuderia Ferrari – have compared Charles Leclerc to the seven-time world champion recently.
Jean Todt remarked that Charles had shown similar leadership qualities to the German this year, while Ross Brawn said of the 21-year-old’s Monza win: “As was the case in Belgium, the team did a very good job. The overall package might be slightly inferior to that of Mercedes, but Ferrari made the most of what it had. The last Ferrari man to do that in these two races was Michael in 1996. Maybe history is beginning to repeat itself.”
Although understandably delighted to see his performances compared with Schumacher, he is keen to dampen expectations for now: “It’s always very nice to hear these type of things. But I’m only 21, I haven’t proved anything compared to what Michael has,” the Ferrari driver is quoted by Racefans – “So for now it’s way too far to speak about these things I’m working on my career, trying to have the best career possible on my side. But obviously to be compared with this one, with these people it’s always an honour but it seems very far to me.”
Michael Schumacher scored four pole positions and three race wins in his debut season for Ferrari, then a distant second to Williams, with Charles Leclerc one behind on both measures as the Scuderia struggle to keep pace with Mercedes in 2019.
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