Talented Youngster Leclerc Secures 4 FP1 Sessions with Sauber

[Paul Jeffrey]

Runaway F2 series leader Charles Leclerc has secured four Free Practice One sessions with Sauber this year, possibly as a precursor to a full time drive with the Swiss team for 2018.

The Ferrari junior driver and sometime Haas F1 reserve Leclerc, 19, will be making his Sauber debut during opening practice for the upcoming Malaysian, American, Mexican and Brazilian rounds of the World Championship, with potential further track time proposed for Abu Dhabi depending on the state of play in his main Formula Two championship fight.

Leclerc is highly regarded by both Ferrari and the Formula One paddock following his incredible Formula Two season this year, with Sauber and the Prancing Horse keen to give the Monégasque driver as much possible ahead of what is expected to be a full time race contract next year. It is not known who will be stepping aside for the youngster during his Free Practice outings, nor have Sauber announced their driver intentions for 2018 at this stage.

With Marcus Eriksson well embedded with the team thanks largely to his connections to owners Longbow Finance, it is expected that Wherlien will be looking for alternative employment next year, with both Williams, Force India and outside Renault all thought to be keeping tabs on the situation.

Leclerc last made an appearance in Formula One machinery during an official session in Britain, Hungary, Germany and Brazil driving for Haas F1.

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Do you think Leclerc could be a useful addition for Sauber? Could the youngster eventually find himself in a Ferrari seat in the near future? Who should he replace at Sauber, Eriksson or Wehrlein? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[mikey79]

Its good to get some F1 expericence.
But Sauber isnt a team you want to join for a full season.
Werhlain is probably employless next year.
And last year he was a DTM world champion, ranked very very high.
Where is Felipe Nasr today ? The "new Senna ", selling icecream on a beach in Brasil ?
And before that, Gutierrez and Sutil - not racing in F1 anymore.
And what was his name - Van the Garde, who was promised a seat, and then suddenly was out in the cold.

So, my point is; dont seems like Sauber is a step in the right direction, the team performs so bad, so the drivers dont get anywhere after a season in Sauber.
The last driver who drove for Sauber and then climbed the carrier-ladder was Perez, who got to drive for Mclaren the next season if im not mistaken, and this is like, 4 years ago ?

 

[Coffer]

I feel sorry for Wehrlein. He's clearly what it takes to be a future champion, but Leclerc is a future legend, so he'll end up being pushed out of the sport altogether.

Its good to get some F1 expericence.
But Sauber isnt a team you want to join for a full season.
Werhlain is probably employless next year.
And last year he was a DTM world champion, ranked very very high.
Where is Felipe Nasr today ? The "new Senna ", selling icecream on a beach in Brasil ?
And before that, Gutierrez and Sutil - not racing in F1 anymore.
And what was his name - Van the Garde, who was promised a seat, and then suddenly was out in the cold.

So, my point is; dont seems like Sauber is a step in the right direction, the team performs so bad, so the drivers dont get anywhere after a season in Sauber.
The last driver who drove for Sauber and then climbed the carrier-ladder was Perez, who got to drive for Mclaren the next season if im not mistaken, and this is like, 4 years ago ?

Wehrlein got screwed over by the idiots running Mercedes and Farce India (Ocon losing to Perez right now is a sign that he's too slow, and Wehrlein should've gotten Bottas's seat at Mercedes as he is the better driver), Nasr is not good enough, Gutierrez is not good enough, Sutil and van der Garde got shafted by the worst team boss since Colin Kolles, and Bianchi died before he could even publicize his move to Sauber, let alone graduate to Ferrari from them. With Leclerc looking to be only marginally worse than Bianchi and Kaltenborn finally being eliminated from the equation (several years too late), I see no reason why he shouldn't be able to make it to Haas or even Ferrari from here.

 

[PR3D4TOR]

Wehrlein won't drive for Sauber next year. I am 99% sure about that because of the stupidity of Mercedes. He has shown pace & talent. A real pity. There need to be more teams (at least 2 more again) to get young talent into the sport. Hopefully F1 will be a bit simplified in the next era so that more teams will compete. Especially works teams would be so nice. Toyota, BMW, maybe some VAG represetant (Audi/Porsche), etc. etc. Maybe Wehrlein will find a seat in Renault for example.

We will see what LeClerc can do in F1. F1 is still very different compared to F2. See Vandoorne. He is by no means bad but he was in the same situation as LeClerc was (absolutely dominating F2/GP2) and now is struggling with this crap Honda engine. LeClerc will hopefully be in a better situation as i think Sauber will get up to date Ferrari engines in 2018.

 

[Coffer]

Wehrlein won't drive for Sauber next year. I am 99% sure about that because of the stupidity of Mercedes. He has shown pace & talent. A real pity. There need to be more teams (at least 2 more again) to get young talent into the sport. Hopefully F1 will be a bit simplified in the next era so that more teams will compete. Especially works teams would be so nice. Toyota, BMW, maybe some VAG represetant (Audi/Porsche), etc. etc.

I do think the sport needs to do more to bring more teams in, but making it more manufacturer-friendly is not the answer. With all of the German ones being blinded by the PR of FE, completely removing them from the equation might save F1 instead, as new teams would no longer have to spend exorbitant amounts on imbalanced engines and have no prayer of ever winning unless they became a works team.

 

[PR3D4TOR]

Yeah but i think it would be very nice if you have much more competition engine wise with Toyota/BMW engines for example. Also much more freedom to pick for no-works teams.
Now? If you have a Merc engine you have the best engine. Thats it.

 

[Coffer]

Yeah but i think it would be very nice if you have much more competition engine wise with Toyota/BMW engines for example. Also much more freedom to pick for no-works teams.
Now? If you have a Merc engine you have the best engine. Thats it.

There's no telling if they're going to be competitive though. Honda are in no way competitive right now, and by 2021 enough will have changed (thanks to hybrid and fully electric developments) that we'll be thinking about this argument in an entirely different way.

 

[PR3D4TOR]

Of course there is the possibility that they won't succeed. But i think if we have more simple engines some Teams/Manufacturers might think of a F1 (Re)Entry. We will see once they agree on the new engine/new F1 era starting in the early 2020s.
10 Teams is not enough in my opinion. We have many talents waiting and still so many great drivers on the grid that should not leave the sport at all ..

 

[Short_Circut]

Toyota, BMW, maybe some VAG represetant (Audi/Porsche), etc. etc.

As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think we'll ever see a team like Audi/Porsche in F1 anytime soon because of the Volkswagon emissions scandal. Hell that's the main reason why they both left WEC in the first place

 

[Chobonator]

maybe some VAG represetant (Audi/Porsche)

It's not because they've put out feminist commercials that I would call them VAG.

 

[PR3D4TOR]

Dont know if serious but VAG = Volkswagen AG; AG = Aktiengesellschaft = Corporation

 

[MustartMatters]

Its good to get some F1 expericence.
But Sauber isnt a team you want to join for a full season.
Werhlain is probably employless next year.
And last year he was a DTM world champion, ranked very very high.
Where is Felipe Nasr today ? The "new Senna ", selling icecream on a beach in Brasil ?
And before that, Gutierrez and Sutil - not racing in F1 anymore.
And what was his name - Van the Garde, who was promised a seat, and then suddenly was out in the cold.

So, my point is; dont seems like Sauber is a step in the right direction, the team performs so bad, so the drivers dont get anywhere after a season in Sauber.
The last driver who drove for Sauber and then climbed the carrier-ladder was Perez, who got to drive for Mclaren the next season if im not mistaken, and this is like, 4 years ago ?

Monisha is gone now, the team will start pumping money in, well that's how it comes across.

 

[MustartMatters]

If the rumours about Pascal's attitude are true, then no matter how good he is, he will get nowhere.

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

So, my point is; dont seems like Sauber is a step in the right direction, the team performs so bad, so the drivers dont get anywhere after a season in Sauber.
The last driver who drove for Sauber and then climbed the carrier-ladder was Perez, who got to drive for Mclaren the next season if im not mistaken, and this is like, 4 years ago ?

If you extend your horizon of history a bit further than last 4 years, you will find following drivers that secured a top deal following their season with Sauber: Massa (2005) -> Ferrari (2006), Fisichella (2004) -> Renault (2005), Raikkonen (2001) -> McLaren (2002). So four drivers went from Sauber straight to a top seat when including Perez. Not bad.

 

[DaVeX↯]

Giovinazzi.... where is him???

 

[Rob]

Sauber? You mean the team that mandated that one driver finish ahead of the other? Hope LeClerc knows which side of the ledger he's on if he drives for Sauber. If they can afford him. Doubt it.

 

[jpalesi]

Giovinazzi.... where is him???

He didn't show himself in the best light by crashing his car in pretty much every chance he had.

Sauber? You mean the team that mandated that one driver finish ahead of the other? Hope LeClerc knows which side of the ledger he's on if he drives for Sauber. If they can afford him. Doubt it.

Sauber has Ferrari engines and Leclerc is a Ferrari driver. The equation isn't hard to get, it's certainly not a problem here of "Sauber can afford him".

 

[Rob]

Sauber has Ferrari engines and Leclerc is a Ferrari driver. The equation isn't hard to get, it's certainly not a problem here of "Sauber can afford him".

I guess that's true if you want to be treated like Chattel. My guess is Sauber can't afford anyone. Besides, who would want to be considered #1? Not me. Not LeClerc if he's smart. It's like affirmative action...it only serves to devalue the people it purports to help.