Austrian former Formula One racing driver Christian Klien feels that Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc is proving himself to be a match talent-wise for 2021 F1 world champion Max Verstappen this season. The 2022 Formula 1 championship has started perfectly for Charles Leclerc, as the Monegasque driver scored two race wins from the first three events and finished in P2 behind Max Verstappen in Saudi Arabia.
Seen as a future World Champion, Charles Leclerc has now established himself as one of the favourites to achieve this performance in 2022. The Monegasque driver can finally show his skills after Ferrari mastered the new Formula 1 rules and regulations in designing the F1-75 car. But Christian Klien, who raced in Formula 1 for Jaguar, Red Bull and Hispania between 2004 and 2010, believes much of the success is down to Charles Leclerc himself.
“Charles Leclerc already showed what he can do against Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari at the beginning of his career,” the Austrian said on Servus TV’s ‘Sport and Talk from Hangar-7’ programme, as reported by planetf1.com – “Okay, Carlos Sainz is also good. But now the car is good enough to win, Leclerc’s exceptional talent comes to the fore. It’s like Verstappen, he has that quality too. I think driving-wise, Leclerc is on a similar level as Verstappen. I’m thinking of the races in Bahrain or Jeddah. You can definitely see Charles is ripe to have a say in the title. Leclerc can now draw on his considerable lead in the World Championship standings. But there have been years in Formula 1 when big gaps have been closed.” – the former F1 driver concluded.
David Coulthard, meanwhile, believes Charles Leclerc reminds him of Michael Schumacher’s dominance in the early 2000s, given the Monegasque driver’s blisteringly fast start to the F1 championship.
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