How Leclerc can be the galvanising figure Ferrari needs

The season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix will mark two years since Charles Leclerc rattled the F1 establishment with a stunning performance in just his second race with Ferrari. Leclerc dominated all three segments in qualifying and achieved his first pole position. Excessive wheelspin off the line cost him the advantage, but within six laps he was back in front and he controlled the race until a fuel injection problem dropped him to third.

But the Monaco youngster had set out his stall. With no intention of playing second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel, Leclerc ignored instructions to hold back from attacking his team-mate in the early stages and almost reaped a worthy reward.

That mindset continued throughout a competitive campaign in which Leclerc achieved back-to-back wins in Belgium and Italy, earned more pole positions than anyone else, and by year’s end was seen as Ferrari’s future. Soon afterwards, Vettel was given a season’s notice.

Leclerc maintained his edge over Vettel in 2020, outqualifying the four-time world champion 13-4 and almost tripling his points tally, but the team was no longer at the sharp end of the grid. An unrevealed agreement between the FIA and Ferrari going into the campaign had a huge influence on the power unit’s potential; frustration festered at virtually every event.

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This was only the fourth time in 63 years that Ferrari failed to finish top five in the constructors’ championship. In 1980 a lack of competitiveness emanated from both engine and chassis as reigning champion Jody Scheckter stayed at Ferrari but struggled to repeat the performances of 1979.

Jody Scheckter, Long Beach 1980

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Jody was also usurped by his less experienced team-mate who scored three times as many points. Gilles Villeneuve refused to be downhearted by an aero package compromised by the shape of an outdated flat-12-cylinder engine. Villeneuve led briefly in Brazil and outqualified Scheckter 13-1.

Jody’s motivation evaporated and he left F1 at the end of the season. Vettel feels he has more to give and has transferred to Aston Martin. But Leclerc is now in a similar position to Villeneuve some 40 years ago: being linked with a competent and capable new team-mate. Then it was Didier Pironi, now it is Carlos Sainz Jr.

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In 1981 Villeneuve and Pironi brought Ferrari back into the constructors’ top five. Pironi scored the team’s first points of the year but Villeneuve was the pacesetter and won in Monaco and Spain. Ferrari’s chassis was not a huge improvement over the previous year’s, but the engine was a revelation. Having caught up with turbocharged technology, the 1.5-litre V6 turbo delivered oodles of horsepower. Throttle response wasn’t ideal, but Villeneuve loved it.

Perhaps history can be repeated – and re-written: a boost in engine power after a dismal year, promising results and a bonded alliance between drivers

Leclerc is no doubt looking for history to be repeated. While there has been no overall change in the power unit rules for 2021, Ferrari has revamped the configuration that performed so dismally last year.

Revised cylinder head design and altered piston crowns aim to improve performance within the internal combustion engine, and changes have been made to the energy recovery system to enable more use of electrical power over the course of a lap.

These modifications have to show promise. For 2022 a completely new chassis will be created under heavily revised regulations that mark the dawn of a new era in F1. However, power unit rules stay the same, so if Ferrari fails to improve this current system then the chances of fighting for a title in the upcoming phase will be remote.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

The pressure is on Enrico Gualtieri, leader of the power unit programme. A Ferrari man through and through, he first engaged with the team when completing his thesis at a university half an hour’s drive from the Maranello factory. Enrico followed current team principal Mattia Binotto through the ranks on the engine side, becoming head of reliability soon after Binotto became head of engine operations and then taking charge of the whole power unit project when Binotto became Ferrari’s technical boss.

They are both going to be under intense scrutiny over these next two seasons. Gualtieri has to deliver horsepower immediately, while Ferrari’s level of competitiveness in 2022 will reflect how Binotto has invested in people and technology through a period of three years.

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Meanwhile Leclerc has his own areas of focus. Sainz is only the third driver Charles will have worked alongside in F1, after Marcus Ericsson at Sauber and then Vettel.

It is not the Villeneuve/Pironi combination, but there are similarities. Gilles was totally integrated into the Ferrari team when Pironi joined, but treated Didier as an equal and with total respect. Pironi’s approach was highly professional, as is that of Sainz.

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Villeneuve and Pironi became friends until a key disagreement at Imola in their second season changed everything, a step on the path to tragic consequences. The 1982 rollercoaster ended with Ferrari winning the constructors’ championship, but devastated at the loss of Villeneuve at Zolder, then Pironi’s career-ending accident in Germany.

Perhaps history can be repeated – and re-written: a boost in engine power after a dismal year, promising results and a bonded alliance between drivers. All leading to a future under new rules where Ferrari plays a key role, but this time the drivers maintain a good relationship and milk the benefits of a new era.

Charles Leclerc

Photo by: GP Racing