Charles Leclerc reminiscent of Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher - Ross Brawn

Ferrari

Leclerc reminiscent of Hamilton and Schumacher - Brawn

Leclerc put in another virtuoso drive to finish fourth in Portugal

Ewan Gale

Monday 26 October 2020 15:23 Updated: 15:32

Formula 1 managing director motorsports Ross Brawn has claimed that Charles Leclerc's performances this season remind him of the Formula 1 achievements of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.

Leclerc has largely outperformed the Ferrari provided to him this year, dragging a woefully underpowered SF1000 to another staggering fourth-place finish at the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday.

Brawn has pointed to the performances of Hamilton and Schumacher, who have reversed roles in the all-time winners' list after the Mercedes driver's 92nd victory at Portimão, as an indicator of Leclerc's talent.

"A driver can go two ways when faced with a difficult car," he wrote in his column for Formula 1.

Seemingly then referring to Sebastian Vettel's struggles in the same machinery alongside Leclerc, Brawn said: "It can demotivate them, their performances start to drop away and it helps no one. It’s a double whammy.

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"Or a driver can do what Charles has done and dig even deeper and find extra performance that helps subsidise the team when things aren’t so great. Through that process, when he does get the car underneath him, he will be a stronger driver.

"I often felt with Michael, there were races he won which he should not have won because the car wasn’t good enough but he managed to find a way to win. And that is what makes a world champion.

"Lewis has demonstrated that. He’s got a great car now, but I recall him winning races when the car was not a top performer. And Charles is doing similar at Ferrari right now."

The former Ferrari technical director believes the continued brilliance shown by the Monégasque will stand the whole team at Maranello in good stead going into the future.

"It was another very strong performance from Charles and he continues to give Ferrari motivation for next year after what has been a very challenging campaign so far," added Brawn.

"The team will know that when they are able to give him a more competitive car, he will deliver the results."

Before you go...

Five talking points from a record-breaking Portuguese Grand Prix

How "calm" Hamilton eased Mercedes nerves en route to breaking Schumacher record