The best thing to do in Formula 1, when you’re not winning, is perhaps to keep scoring. For what better could one possibly to in a sport that demands the cars to keep moving forwards, than moving forwards in the points department?
And if you were to observe a certain Charles Leclerc closely, you’d realise that he’s not winning. He hasn’t been winning actually and yet he’s been moving forwards. For someone who was a participant at Monza, nonetheless an utterly competitive one at that who pushed and pushed his teammate towards that possible third that ultimately went to Sainz, Leclerc’s fought back where the last few races are concerned.
For someone who had to face the ignominy of being behind Sainz, who’s clearly risen his game at Ferrari, it was Leclerc who drove the wheels of his Ferrari at Suzuka. In the land of the Samurais, it was the Monegasque- not the Spaniard- it ought to be reminded who top scored for the Scuderia stable; garnering a fighting fourth.
Not that the top five finish was a flash in the pan moment for the famed Ferrari driver; in the very next race at Qatar, Charles Leclerc was the only Ferrari that actually scored points. A P5 may seem a touch lukewarm especially when both McLaren drivers, including one contesting in his rookie season, scored a podium. But fact be assessed, Leclerc’s fifth was a welcome sight for the Vasseur-led team whose other driver Sainz, hitherto in dominant form registered a DNF.
Moreover, even as Leclerc’s last podium came at Belgium, which was actually nearly a quarter of a year back, if you were to think, you’d convert scathing criticism about him missing out on the big points when you eye a crucial fact.
It’s that not once in the last five races has Ferrari’s go-to-driver even as Sainz been anything but a letdown, has finished in the top five in every race since Spa-Francorchamps. Lest it is forgotten, he was the pole sitter at Spa in 2023.
However, Charles’s career has already, over the course of the past half a decade, faced changing turnstiles.
He had to work his way up from Alfa Romeo with whom he debuted back at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.
You realise he’s done already quite a bit in his relative young and still very much developing career when you recollection that in a few days’ time, he’ll be driving his one hundredth race with the icon called Scuderia Ferrari stable.
21 of his 120 race starts came at Alfa Romeo; the rest, a meaty 99 races have happened already with a team that isn’t the fastest at the moment but rapider and hungrier to bounce back at any cost given so far down has been its withering fortunes.
Not that the kind hearted Monegasque, who patiently stops to pose with fans, seldom depriving them of their selfies and autographs, hasn’t done his bit to up Ferrari’s game.
In his first year at the team that’s all red, he proved just why he’d emerge as the Italian camp’s blue eyed boy.
To this day, the words of the great David Croft aka “Crofty” spring to the mind as he narrated the tale of two brilliant race wins. Charles won at Spa, he won at Monza and later, was all set for perhaps another victory at Singapore when under the bright night lights of the Marina Bay, he saw his then teammate Vettel eclipse with the win.
Charles, as on date, has bagged every single podium, pole and race win of his with the Scuderia family. And that’s not a sorry looking tally that includes 5 wins, 20 poles and 27 podiums from 99 appearances in red racing overalls. On an average, every fifth Ferrari appearance of his has culminated in a pole whilst there’s been one podium in every 3.66 races that he zips whilst driving in a Ferrari. So far, Leclerc, just 26 with hopefully prime form ahead of him, has kept the likes of Hamilton at bay in winning races.
He’s unleashed a not-so-often visible streak of ruthlessness whilst competing against the very best that Red Bull have produced in a very long time; who can possibly underplay the significant battles between Leclerc and Verstappen at Spielberg, the Red Bull outfit’s home racing event at Austria?
He’s had the respect of Kimi and Vettel and the backing of Fred Vasseur, which many Carlos Sainz fans feel even today is the more preferred driver at Maranello. Plus, there’s the big Hope, a sobering one at that if glory is to return to Maranello someday, then the first man to do it for Italy’s greatest contribution to the world of racing would be down to Leclerc’s prowess and power. Leclerc’s consistency at tracks like Baku and Silverstone go to show his uncanny ability to hold it together in tricky conditions and tracks that can feel cagey, especially the former.
Surely, there’ve been disappointments such as Monaco, his home racing event where he’s yet to even bag a podium, let alone a win. Inexplicable that it may be, it’s not that Charles has not tried to shine bright at his home race but he’s yet to win hearts and settle the long standing debate whether he has it in him to ace the crown jewel of MotorRacing.
In 2021, he even failed to start his home race.
But there again, true to his penchant for attacking quietly without being a loud blabbering driver on the track, the ladies’ favourite driver has proven true to his salt. How? In his maiden year at Ferrari, Charles claimed a vital fourth on the Driver’s standings. He’d finish second last year in 2022, the closest he ever came to tasting glory at Ferrari and winning it for the redoubtable icon on the grid. But here he is now- having to sort out so much and to get the best out of the often lukewarm and on other occasions, surprisingly quick SF23.
The good thing is, Leclerc’s not even close to getting any older. The best thing is; he’s got no chance, none whatsoever at being lackadaisical for the motivation to win big at Ferrari to become the first since the Iceman kimi in 2007 is too grand to turn against.