British automotive engineer Rob Smedley, who works for the organizers of Formula 1 motor racing after several years working within Scuderia Ferrari and other F1 teams, believes that Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has the skills and leadership ability to raise the Maranello team in the same way the legendary Michael Schumacher did when he joined the team back in 1996,
Despite the fact that Charles Leclerc is currently behind both Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the 2022 F1 standings ahead of the British Grand Prix, little blame can be attributed to the Monegasque driver himself, who won two of the first three races in the current campaign and was leading the World Championship after the Australian Grand Prix, but due to a series of car issues as well as some bad team strategy decisions, Charles Leclerc has lost a lot of ground to Max Verstappen and now hopes to be able to recover in the second part of the championship.
Rob Smedley, who worked for the Maranello team for ten years, most notably as Felipe Massa’s race engineer, explained that he can see the same qualities in Charles Leclerc as he did in Michael Schumacher:
“He, [Leclerc] Max and Lewis [Hamilton] are able to raise the level of the whole team, dragging others along and conveying a winning spirit,” the 48-year-old said in a recent interview for Italian daily newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport – “The same ability that Michael Schumacher had at Ferrari, when he was a catalyst, surrounded by [Jean] Todt, [Ross] Brawn and [Rory] Byrne. From these drivers comes the drive to react to mistakes and improve.” – he added.
The former Ferrari race engineer, who currently works for the organisers of Formula 1, pointed to Charles Leclerc as one of the drivers on the current grid that he likes.
“Lewis Hamilton has achieved incredible things, it’s amazing what he has done on and off the track with his message. Leclerc and Verstappen are exciting. Charles wins the audience because he has a normal background, he is not the son of a rich family in Monte Carlo. Then there is the up-and-coming generation of which [Lando] Norris and [Pierre] Gasly are a part.” – he continued.
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One of Rob Smedley’s key tasks as part of his job is to provide data that indicates how audiences may better engage with Formula One. The feedback is very important because it can later lead to major changes, such as the overhaul of rules and regulations for the current Formula 1 season. One of the major goals set for the new rules was to limit turbulence when a car follows another one and therefore give the driver a better chance of attempting an overtaking move:
“We started with a survey of fans, from which emerged a desire to see closer duels on the track. As F1 we had to look for a solution to reduce the negative effect of turbulence on overtaking. We studied the fluid dynamics of two cars, put one behind the other, and came up with a single-seater model, together with the federation, from which the teams started to design the cars according to the new regulations. It’s good to hear the feedback, it always happens when something new is introduced, in this case huge. But the indications tell us that we have gone in the right direction. The ground effect cars are already as fast as the 2021 cars, and by the end of the season they could overtake them.” – Rob Smedley concluded.
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