Christian Klien thinks Charles Leclerc is showing his level, in terms of talent, once morest Max Verstappen this season.
The 2022 season so far is turning to the advantage of the Ferrari driver, who has won two of the three races and finished second behind Verstappen in the other, by just half a second.
Long considered a future world champion, Leclerc has now established himself as the big favorite to accomplish this feat this year.
He is obviously helped considerably by Ferrari who have mastered the new Formula 1 regulations with the F1-75. But Klien, who competed in 49 Grands Prix for Jaguar, Red Bull and HRT between 2004 and 2010, believes much of the success is due to Leclerc himself.
“Leclerc already showed what he might do once morest Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari early in his career,” Klien recalls.
“As I said, now his F1 is good enough to win and so his exceptional talent can burst to the fore. He’s like Verstappen, he has that quality too.”
“In my opinion, from a driving point of view, Leclerc is on the same level as Verstappen. I am thinking of the races in Bahrain or Jeddah. You can certainly see that Leclerc is now mature enough to have a say in a title race. .”
“Leclerc can now build on his considerable lead in the championship standings. But there have been years in Formula 1 where big gaps have been closed. He is right to remain wary.”