Ferrari-bound Charles Leclerc believes Sauber’s progress through the course of the 2018 Formula 1 season facilitated his own personal development, after a slow start.
Leclerc stepped up to Formula 1 in 2018 as the reigning Formula 2 champion and did so with a Sauber team that had spent 2017 rooted to the back of the grid.
But Sauber, under new boss Frederic Vasseur, entered the new year regading 2018 as the first step in its recovery, aided by greater investment, a return to current-year power units, and a closer relationship with Ferrari and sister brand Alfa Romeo.
Sauber started the year slowly, eliminated in Q1 and away from the points fight, but by mid-season had emerged as a Q3 contender, with Leclerc capping the campaign by finishing seventh at the final three races.
Leclerc’s performances proved sufficient to convince Ferrari to take him onboard for 2019 as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement.
“I think it could have been a very difficult season mentally if obviously myself and the car would have kept the level we had at the beginning of the season,” he said.
“For me it made it a lot more interesting once we started to evaluate as a car and also myself as a driver and it made things a lot more interesting, fighting for points and things like this, it gave me a lot of motivation.
“But I believe that if you are in a position like where we were for the first few races for the whole year the motivation is quite difficult.
“Probably I was thinking in the first three races [that] we were not so competitive so obviously after 20 laps we were alone in 19th position and then it gets quite boring as you are just waiting for the end of the race.”
Leclerc finished the campaign by scoring 39 of the 48 points amassed by Sauber, which secured eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
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