Leclerc Approaching 'Make Or Break' Situation According To Villeneuve
F1Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at 19:30
Jacques Villeneuve (1997 Formula 1 World Champion) suggested the two years alongside Lewis Hamilton will "make or break" Charles Leclerc.
In 2025, Charles Leclerc will be joined in Ferrari by the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton. This will be the second time that the 26-year-old Ferrari driver will be paired with a World Champion.
Leclerc previously drove alongside and managed to beat the four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
However, the situation was very different back then, as the young Monegasque was under no pressure, and nobody expected him to beat the Gearman F1 driver.
In his most recent interview with GP Fans, Jacques Villeneuve pointed out that Leclerc hasn't been so dominant recently (driving alongside Carlos Sainz) and will have a lot to prove once he's paired with the most successful driver in the sport's history.
"Charles was brought into Ferrari as a champion when he wasn't because he was brought in from Sauber saying: 'Well, he is a champion.'"
"No, because he was beating someone in karting or whatever, that doesn't pan out. He still has to prove it. He's shown a lot of speed, he's shown that he's super fast, but he's not the one who won the race for Ferrari last year."
Ferrari trusts the Monegasque driver as they picked him over Sainz. Fred Vasseur (the team principal of the team from Maranello) also believes the pairing with the seven-time World Champion will be beneficial for the 26-year-old as there is still a lot he can learn.
Villeneuve, on the other hand, believes there is also the possibility that this pairing with Hamilton could break the Leclerc. He added:
"So it will be interesting to see how that balances out inside Ferrari. This will be make or break for Charles, not for Lewis."
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