'Yet another Leclerc error proves he'll never be like Verstappen'

Ever since karting, Leclerc and Verstappen have been battling for the biggest prizes. The Monegasque driver also left a remarkable impression in the junior categories. As a Ferrari protégé, he quickly rose through the junior series, winning the GP3 championship and, as a rookie, immediately clinching the Formula 2 title.

Things also went smoothly for Leclerc in Formula 1. At Alfa Romeo he was immediately better than Marcus Ericsson and, after just one year, earned a promotion to Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari’s last world champion, was moved aside for the young talent.

And Leclerc immediately lived up to that status as a talent. In his first two years at Ferrari, he was straightaway faster than Sebastian Vettel, who in turn was gradually ushered toward the exit. With Carlos Sainz alongside him, the Monegasque was supposed to truly step up as Ferrari’s number 1, but six seasons on, that still hasn’t happened.

Leclerc has always been quicker than Sainz over a single lap and, over a full season, generally the better driver. Yet Leclerc kept making mistakes. His all-or-nothing driving style regularly nets him pole positions, but perhaps even more often lands him in the gravel trap or the barriers. It wasn’t solely Leclerc’s fault, but in 2022 there was indeed a chance at the world title for him, and scoring inconsistently allowed Max Verstappen to cruise fairly comfortably to the championship. In the years since, Ferrari hasn’t produced a title-winning car, but Leclerc also hasn’t shown he can make that next step.

The fact that Leclerc hasn’t been able to take that step as a number 1 was, of course, also a reason for Ferrari to bring in Lewis Hamilton. A driver no longer at his absolute peak, but one who has proven he can win world titles and belongs among the best of all time. Within Ferrari, they will have asked themselves whether Leclerc would ever become that.

In 2025, Leclerc seemed the winner with Hamilton’s arrival. In their first year together in red, Leclerc was comfortably the better of the two. In a new car, with new regulations and a new power unit, that advantage for Leclerc has completely vanished. The Monegasque started 2026 reasonably well, but since Canada he’s been nowhere and has been making mistake after mistake.

And that last point continues to hang over Leclerc. World-class drivers don’t keep making those errors. Leclerc keeps stubbing his toe on the same stone, time and time again. Where Verstappen needed six Grands Prix at the start of 2018 and then virtually stopped making such mistakes, Leclerc is now 28 years old and nine seasons into F1. That leads to the conclusion: the next step in his learning curve still hasn’t come—and likely never will.

And that’s a shame, because Leclerc is a likable figure in the paddock and can be incredibly fast when everything clicks. Learning when to be quick and when to manage is also an art you must master as an F1 driver. It’s an art Leclerc just doesn’t seem to learn. It’s admirable to take the blame every time it happens, but if you’ve done that so often already, have you really learned from it?