Motorsport Week's team of writers got together to discuss what they believe will be the big questions for the 2019 motorsport season, covering all the major series from Formula 1 to IndyCar, WEC to DTM and everything in-between. We'll post a new question over the course of the next 19 days, starting with…
1/19: How will Charles Leclerc fare at Ferrari?
Charles Leclerc’s ascent has been meteoric. It was just three years ago that the protégé of Nicolas Todt and the godson of the late Jules Bianchi was signed to Ferrari’s Driver Academy, in which period he has shone in GP3, starred in Formula 2, and lit up Formula 1 as one of the most eye-catching youngsters in a generation, doing so with a level of humility and assuredness that has earned him a legion of fans and admirers.
His performances, and growth, through that period was enough to convince Sergio Marchionne that he is ready for Ferrari for 2019, providing a bold leap of faith from a company that typically adopted a conservative stance.
Marchionne’s wishes were respected after his untimely death and the 21-year-old with 21 starts to his name will don the famous scarlet overalls and visit Maranello not as its protégé but as a fully-fledged Ferrari driver upon which the hopes of a thousand-strong workforce and millions of fans worldwide are placed.
Leclerc has so far dealt superbly with everything that has come his way – both on- and off-track – and while there will undoubtedly be setbacks and difficulties, the evidence suggests he will regard mistakes as opportunities from which to learn. It would be a shock if he were to have all the tools to launch a year-long title fight – considering the might of the opposition – but he will not be out of place at the front of the grid.
One of the biggest subplots will surely be the development of his relationship with Sebastian Vettel, who will be keen to assert himself after a disjointed 2018 that promised much but delivered little, and with one key ally – Kimi Raikkonen – now gone. Vettel has already been bitten once by an upstart new team-mate with all to gain and little to lose, and while the circumstances are different to five years ago, he will not want history to repeat itself, especially in the midst of uncertainty at the notoriously political Ferrari.
