‘Exceptional’ Leclerc ‘on a similar level’ to Max

Christian Klien believes Charles Leclerc is showing himself to be a match talent-wise for Max Verstappen this season.

The 2022 campaign has been all about Leclerc so far, the Ferrari driver having won two of the three races and finished second to Verstappen in the other, beaten by only half a second.

Long regarded as a future World Champion, Leclerc has now established himself as the red-hot favourite to accomplish that feat this year.

It’s a win

Soooo happy! Perfect weekend.

Forza Ferrari @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/Hzhab92JwQ

— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) April 10, 2022

He is obviously being helped considerably by Ferrari having mastered the new Formula 1 regulations with the F1-75 car. But Klien, who competed in 49 grands prix for Jaguar, Red Bull and Hispania between 2004 and 2010, thinks much of the success is down to Leclerc himself.

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“Leclerc already showed what he can do against Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari at the beginning of his career,” the Austrian said on Servus TV’s ‘Sport and Talk from Hangar-7’ programme, quoted by Speedweek.

“Okay, Carlos Sainz is also good. But now the car is good enough to win, Leclerc’s exceptional talent comes to the fore. It’s like Verstappen, he has that quality too.

“I think driving-wise, Leclerc is on a similar level as