F1: Charles Leclerc has little time to waste in adjusting to Ferrari pressure, says Martin Brundle
Exclusive: Leclerc begins his journey with the Scuderia at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Friday, where he will face a career defining challenge
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Your support makes all the difference.When people think of the biggest teams in sport, a few iconic names come to mind.
The Dallas Cowboys, Manchester United, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Real Madrid and LA Lakers to name just a handful. But should Ferrari also be mentioned within that bracket?
When assessing these huge institutions of sport their monetary value is often the measuring stick, but something impossible to scrutinise physically is equally as significant. Pressure.
Whether it comes from the hopes and dreams of legions of fans, the intense analysis of the media or the sneers of jealous rivals, the undeniable and yet mysteriously abstract phenomenon of pressure connects all the major sporting powers and separates them from the rest.
It’s not just any old pressure, either. This is the kind which turns even the most brazen into quivering messes, the biggest showmen into awe-struck statues.
That is why when Formula One’s newest young star, Charles Leclerc, begins his journey with the Scuderia at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Friday, he will be facing a career defining challenge.
Can he live up to it? Sky Sports F1 commentator and former driver Martin Brundle thinks the unique pressure will be too much for him.
“I think Leclerc’s the real deal but he will have a pressure that only one other driver on the grid has and that’s Sebastian Vettel in terms of being a Ferrari driver,” Brundle tells The Independent.
“We know the pressure that comes from Italy, from the media, the fans – the Tifosi as they call them – it’s almost a religion over there and they get analysed and scrutinised in a way that other F1 teams don’t.
“I don’t know if it’s the same at Manchester United or Barcelona or Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain, wherever the big teams are, whether in their own countries they have this same kind of pressure.
“Certainly an F1 team, of course they’re all under pressure, you’ve all got to deliver or you will be replaced, but they have to tolerate quite a lot of other close scrutiny. It’s a tall order for a young guy so if he starts making mistakes, they’ll be down on him like a tonne of bricks.”
The reference to sporting behemoths in the world of football is apt because the Ferrari F1 team, it can be argued, is bigger than the very sport it competes in and the stresses it puts its employees under are far greater than at any of its peers at Manchester United or Real Madrid.
Every mistake made by Paul Pogba is reviewed and evaluated to within an inch of its life, something not too dissimilar to the way in which Vettel is criticised in Italy for anything less than perfection.
Leclerc has never experienced anything like this before and so it will be a unique challenge for a man who has already proved he is a force to be reckoned with.
The Monegasque driver has erupted onto the scene with standout performances in karting, a rapid progression through single seater series including championship wins in GP3 and Formula Two and, last season, a remarkable debut year in F1.
At 21, he will become Ferrari’s youngest driver since 1961 and many are tipping him to put huge pressure on the Italian teams’ established number one in Vettel.
Brundle adds: “I think he’ll be fast, I think he’ll be right there if the Ferrari is as good as we think it is and it looks very driveable, whether it’s the streets of Monaco or the high-speed straights of Monza.
“What I expect, though, because he’s not been in a championship winning position, is he’ll make an error or two here or there that will just drop him off the contenders list but it is not out of the question that he could challenge for the title.”
In a way, Leclerc will be aiming to do just what Cristiano Ronaldo did when he joined Manchester United in the mid-2000s, displacing Wayne Rooney as the main man at the giant of its sport and, ultimately, going on to complete stardom.
There are, of course, several recent examples of talented young stars upsetting the apple cart at their new teams with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen doing so at McLaren and Red Bull against Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo respectively.
“I saw a comment from Lewis the other day saying ‘oh it’s too much to expect him to be a championship contender in his first year’, well Lewis did it back in 2007 when he had a very fast McLaren,” Brundle says.
“I’m utterly convinced he’s (Leclerc’s) a champion of the future.”
Indeed, Verstappen’s arrival, coupled with the likes of Esteban Ocon and Leclerc himself, has begun to usher in a new generation taking over the sport.
Brundle adds: “What we’re going to be looking at, not too far down the road now, is a changing of the guard going on in F1.
“Leclerc versus Verstappen and I think Ocon will be back in the fray hopefully as well.
“We’ve also got the best prepared young drivers in the history of F1 coming into the sport, I would say, in Lando Norris, George Russell and Alex Albon, they’re so ready for it despite their tender years.
“With Leclerc I’m very excited about him in the same way I was excited about Verstappen.”
With all this change and talk of as much as a half a second gap for Ferrari at the front after pre-season testing it could, then, be a tougher year for the five-time world champion in Hamilton.
“I think Hamilton is favourite still,” Brundle confirms. “He’s the guy that has the stamina and the speed and the nous, the calm approach to make a championship campaign.
“We know Mercedes have got the might to keep developing their car but I believe that leaves Hamilton heading to Melbourne feeling he’s got the biggest challenge on his hands in the hybrid era yet.”
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