Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has hailed the civility of his world championship battle against long-time rival Max Verstappen during the 2022 Formula One season.
In the previous campaign, Max Verstappen won the title after a very intense duel with Lewis Hamilton, which resulted in several crashes and high profile accusations both on and off the track. Taking into consideration their personal history as boys back in their junior karting days, many felt that a Max Verstappen – Charles Leclerc head-to-head could become just as ugly this season:
“Max and I didn’t know at the time that we were going to get into Formula 1,” – Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said in a recent interview for DAZN – “In karting, my biggest rival was probably Max. We were less mature, much younger, we took things more personally than we do now. Of course when you’re in the car, you never leave room for them to pass you or whatever. We do our best to keep each other behind. But we also know that drivers on the track are different people off the track. I think it’s fantastic that we both understand that,” Charles Leclerc continued.
Max Verstappen is very close to securing his second second consecutive drivers’ world championship, in a season in which Ferrari was not able to live up to the encouraging start of 2022. However, Charles Leclerc is still confident he can win at least few races in this final part of the campaign: “I will fight until the end, taking each race at a time” he said, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Former Formula 1 driver Pedro de la Rosa, who in 2013 was signed in a developmental role for Scuderia Ferrari, aiding with its simulator resources, feels that 24-year-old Charles Leclerc will have other chances to win the Formula 1 title with the Maranello team in the next years:
“He’s maturing. He hasn’t reached his peak yet. His great strength is that we don’t know how far he can go. Ferrari has wasted the match points it had, but does Leclerc have the quality to be world champion? Yes. Does he have the ability to be world champion several times? Also yes.” – Pedro de la Rosa concluded.
Leave a Reply