RACINGAWARDS 2019
HOW YOU VOTED
CharlesLeclerc 46.8%
Lewis Hamilton 21.8%
MaxVerstappen 15.8%
Valtteri Bottas 8.8%
Carlos Sainz 2.5%98 F1 RACING JANUARY 2020QUALIFIER
OF THE YEAR
CharlesLeclerc
Ferrari
“Firstly, thankyou for the award.
It has been agre at year onmy side,
especially inqua lifying asI did not
expectto achieve seven poles. So
it’s agood surprise andthanksto
my team and also thereaders ofF1
Racingmagazinefor this accolade.”
CharlesLeclercWhen CharlesLeclercscored his first pole
position, in Bahrain, it caught everyone’s
attention.Four-time champion SebastianVettel
was supposedto be the leadFerrari driver –
so how was it that this youngster, in only his
second full season in F1, was quicker?
Bahrain aside, in the first part of the year
Leclerc’s approach on Saturdays was haphazard
and the 21-year-old slipped up on more than
one occasion – but admittedto his mistakes.
During his rookie year at Sauber,Leclerc hadto
fight at every turnto claw his way into Q2 and
Q3, but that aggressive, risky approach was
neither necessary nor desirable at the wheel
of a top-level car.
After recognising where he was going
wrong,Leclerc swiftly changed his approachto
qualifying, working insteadto build momentum
as the hour wore on. It worked.From the French Grand Prix onwards,Leclerc
outqualifiedVettel for nine races in a row and
was getting stronger every time. From Spato
Sochi he scoredfour consecutive pole positions- becoming the firstFerrari driverto do so since
Michael Schumacher achieved thatfeat in 2000.
There’s no doubt that through his impressive
qualifying pace and his success in races, young
Leclerc is becoming the natural number one
driver atFerrari – and that’s not sitting well with
Vettel. At the start of the Russian GP,Vettel
ignored ateam orderto yieldto Leclerc. Then
in Brazil, a ballsyovertake fromLeclerc ledto
retaliation fromVettel – and the pair made
contact,forcing them both into retirement.
Leclerc’s meteoric rise has givenFerrari
team boss Mattia Binotto a lotto think about
with regardsto how he deals with his drivers
going into 2020...