Charles Leclerc insists he will not be under pressure to deliver results when he joins Ferrari for the 2019 Formula 1 season. The 21-year-old Monégasque racing driver will become Scuderia’s youngest driver since 1961 when he replaces Kimi Raikkonen as Sebastian Vettel’s team-mate next season, just a year after making his Formula 1 debut for Sauber, while he will also become the first Ferrari Driver Academy graduate to be promoted to the senior Ferrari team.
After an impressive debut season in Formula 1 much is expected of the 21-year-old but he is confident in his ability and has told Ferrari to drop him if he does not deliver for the team: “I’m not a nervous person, there are tensions in this sport and at the start, there is adrenaline, but I would not say it is nervousness,” Leclerc told the Beyond The Grid podcast – “If you ask me about the pressure, I think I can handle this because I have a mentality that I don’t feel the pressure at all. I know lots of people say, ‘yeah but the pressure in Ferrari is on another level’, but my mentality allows me to take of all the pressure. I don’t really take into consideration what people are expecting from me. The only thing I do is focus on myself and try to give the best possible performance on track. I’m also very honest. If I’m not good enough next year, I should be dropped by Ferrari and this would be completely understandable for me. This is how I see it. If I’m good enough, I deserve to stay there. If I’m not, I deserve to be left off and I think that takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders.” – Charles Leclerc concluded.
Buy official Ferrari F1 products!
Leave a Reply