Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc revealed “management” as his driving weakness throughout his career.
Leclerc is one of the elite talents on the grid. He has been a mainstay at Ferrari for a few years, and is one of the most consistent drivers racing today.
However, 2021 marked the first time the Monegasque was beaten by his teammate. Said teammate was Carlos Sainz, who joined Ferrari from McLaren. The Spaniard pipped his Monegasque counterpart to P5 in the Drivers’ Championship on the last day of the season.
After the setback, Leclerc revealed “management” as his driving weakness and credited Sainz for helping him figure it out.
“We learned a lot,” he said, as quoted by formula1news.co.uk.
“As always when you have a new teammate you always learn, (such as) the new ways Carlos is approaching race weekends, the way he works, his talent, his raw speed also, the way he takes the corners.”
Pushing each other
“He had an amazing year, so he obviously pushed me very, very much to try and perform better at every race and it’s just been extremely interesting,” he continued.
“I think maybe one of the strong points of Carlos is the race management and tyre management, and that was probably my weakness in 2019.
“I progressed a lot as a driver in 2020 and again last year, and part of last year was thanks to Carlos.”
Leclerc and Sainz helped Ferrari clinch P3 in the Constructors’ Championship, beating the latter’s former team in McLaren to it.
Having trailed the Woking team for much of the season, the two drivers were instrumental in the Prancing Horse completing the comeback.
Sainz is set to stay with Ferrari for another year, and may even continue to do so if he keeps up this level of performance.
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