Ferrari in BRUTALLY honest Charles Leclerc appraisal following 2023 F1 struggles

Leclerc in Saudi Arabia — Photo: © LAT Images

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc given BRUTALLY HONEST appraisal by Ferrari

Piero Ferrari, vice-chairman of the Scuderia, says Charles Leclerc is not at Max Verstappen's level but has backed him to improve

Dan McCarthy

Sunday 21 May 2023 17:59

Charles Leclerc is not at the same level as defending champion Max Verstappen according to Scuderia vice-chairman Piero Ferrari.

The Monegasque racer is in his fifth season with the team now and has amassed a good amount of experience at a young age.

Last season, it appeared Leclerc was going to convert his talent into a title bid after winning two of the first three races, but a combination of reliability issues, strategic blunders, and driver errors meant the Maranello team finished well adrift of Red Bull.

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They are further adrift this year sitting behind both Aston Martin and Mercedes, and Leclerc has come under criticism for mistakes made, especially during qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.

Now, his confidence might be even lower following comments made by Ferrari, who says Leclerc does not have the requisite experience to match Verstappen – but believes he has the scope to improve his performances

"Charles has the speed to be equal to Verstappen, but he has less experience, in terms of number of GPs," Ferrari told Autosprint.

"Leclerc can still grow, he will grow."

Mixed views on Leclerc recently

Leclerc has long been heralded as a future world champion and his raw pace has been there to see ever since his debut for Alfa Romeo in 2018.

Just one season with them persuaded Ferrari to get him on board in 2019 and he has remained there since, seeing off four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the process.

He has established himself as a qualifying specialist, achieving 19 pole positions with the latest coming in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this season.

Leclerc has often been the man to beat in qualifying

Yet Leclerc has made a series of high-profile errors behind the wheel and that has led to big questions being asked of him.

Former F1 star Ralf Schumacher has been on record saying Leclerc and team mate Carlos Sainz are the "biggest problem" affecting the team right now.

Ferrari says his drivers will get better though and has also backed Sainz, saying: "I think we have not yet seen his true full potential, we are waiting for it."

Lelcerc will hope to respond at his home Grand Prix on Sunday, with his previous best finish in Monaco being fourth.