Is Ferrari's best hope since Vettel ready to be an F1 world champion?

A controlled victory and a second-place finish in the first two rounds of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has given Leclerc a 12-point gap to Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz at the top of the drivers’ standings early on in F1’s new era. 

Leclerc also holds a 20-point advantage over reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who has proven to be the Ferrari driver’s main challenger so far this campaign. 

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The pair have engaged in some breathless wheel-to-wheel battles for victory at both events; Leclerc came out on top in Bahrain, before Verstappen struck back in Saudi Arabia following his DNF in the season-opener. 

Ferrari’s much-improved F1-75 package and Red Bull’s radical RB18 car appear to be the class of the field at the start of F1’s rules revolution, setting up the tantalising prospect of a season-long title fight between two of F1’s most exciting young talents in Leclerc and Verstappen. 

Asked if the 24-year-old is driving like someone who can win the world championship, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said: “I think he is. 

“But it’s something which I was expecting when renewing as well with him up to the end of 2024, because we know what he’s capable of.

“I think he is simply demonstrating that he’s capable of fighting for the championship.

“No doubt he’s got the talent, he’s got the capacity. He is a very good racer and we’re very happy with what he’s proving in these two races.”

Leclerc’s talent and incredible raw speed has been blatantly obvious ever since his arrival on the F1 grid, which followed back-to-back title successes in GP3 and Formula 2. 

It was that inherent pace and ability that ultimately led to Leclerc being fast-tracked into a Ferrari seat after just a single season at Sauber (now Alfa Romeo). 

Leclerc outclassed teammate Sebastian Vettel on his way to claiming two victories and finishing ahead of the four-time world champion in his first year at Ferrari in 2019, before the Italian outfit’s form dramatically nosedived in 2020, resulting in its worst performance across a season in nearly half a century. 

After two years of recovery, Ferrari finally looks like being in a position to challenge for a first world title since 2008.

But Leclerc has not been without his flaws. The tendency for crashes such as during qualifying for the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix to creep in have threatened to cast a slight shadow over his brilliance, but he has grown from those errors. 

Leclerc is hugely self-critical and has been incredibly harsh on himself for making such mistakes due to the high expectation he has placed on himself. So far in 2022, he has been exemplary. 

Ferrari witnessing 'Leclerc 2.0’ in 2022 

Long-standing Ferrari test driver Marc Gene, who has overseen Leclerc’s progress at Ferrari from day one, believes the Monegasque has now evolved both his “mindset and mentality” and is a much stronger driver than the one who joined the Maranello outfit three years ago. 

“Charles, he used to be very emotional and this year he has changed a lot,” Gene recently told the F1 Nation podcast. 

“Charles is like a 2.0 version of himself. When I went to Barcelona for the private testing, we spent a lot of time together and he was completely changed in his mindset and his mentality, and you can see it. 

“[In Bahrain] I was expecting Charles to be more over the moon after qualifying, after the pole, and the race, but he seemed so much more mature and aware that this is a very long championship.”

Leclerc has always shown an impressive mental resolve, which was perhaps highlighted none more so than during his championship-winning F2 campaign in 2017 when Leclerc turned in a remarkable drive to win the Baku feature race just four days after the death of his father, Herve. 

His performances in the opening two rounds of the 2022 F1 season have clearly underlined that Leclerc has the car, speed and nous to take it to Verstappen this year. 

The big question mark that remains is whether he can keep up with the Dutchman’s staggering consistency and handle the pressure as the season intensifies. After all, an F1 title fight is on another level altogether to what he has experienced before. 

This is where Verstappen may be at an advantage, given he has already had to deal with a fierce title fight last season as he triumphed against Lewis Hamilton. 

But Leclerc remains calm and seemingly unfazed about the prospect of battling for his maiden world title. 

Asked how he plans to handle expectations around Ferrari mounting a potential title bid this year, Leclerc replied: “The same way as I’ve approached the expectations in the past.

“There’s always been, at some times in my career, some moments where I had very high expectations on me.

“I just tried to delete them, to not focus on them at all and to just focus on myself.”

Despite his strong start to the season and smooth adaptation to F1’s new generation of cars, Leclerc insists the best is still to come from him. 

“I’m quite happy with this start of the season for sure,” he said. “I’m working well with the team and the preparation for the first race was very good. I feel good in general but there’s definitely more to come. 

“The thing I’m happy about is not really the performance, but I know exactly where I still need to work and what I need to improve to unlock more performance. 

“Whether it will be enough or not to win the world championship, I have no idea. It’s still very early in the season but let’s say that it is a very good start of the season.”