Mika Hakkinen: “Charles Leclerc is fast, but he needs time and a lot of work to reach Sebastian Vettel’s level”. Mika Hakkinen has weighed in on the Scuderia Ferrari driver situation.

Two-time Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen has weighed in on the Scuderia Ferrari driver situation and he believes it will take a lot of hard work and a lot of time for Charles Leclerc to reach the level of his teammate, Sebastian Vettel.

It has been a controversial start to life for Charles Leclerc at the Italian side, with team orders, reliability and mistakes all costing him at points this season. At the most recent race in Monaco, he failed to make it out of Q1 because of a mistake from his team and then he was forced to retire early after picking up a puncture.

Early in the season, many thought Charles Leclerc deserved more of a shot at being Scuderia Ferrari’s number one but Mika Hakkinen believes it will take hard work and time for the Monegasque to get anywhere near his teammate’s level: “Sebastian Vettel has a great experience and is fast” – Mika Hakkinen said, as reported earlier today by Spanish national daily sport newspaper Marca – “He will need time to be at Vettel’s level, the German has four titles. We need involvement, the ability to manage the people in the team and Charles Leclerc has a lot of work to do. He is fast, but only with speed you don’t become a champion of the world. He must always be faster than Vettel.” – he explained.