Leclerc "won't be Vettel's number two"

New Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc believes he won't be the number two to Sebastian Vettel at Scuderia...

Leclerc was announced as Ferrari's new man recently with him and Kimi Raikkonen and the 20-year-old switching sides.

He will stay at Sauber until the end of the season, and believes the contract he signed with the Italians will not tie him down to a support role for the former world champion.

"I think it's more or less like this in every team: you have two drivers that start the season on equal status and then at one point in the season, obviously you see some team orders because obviously only one driver is playing the championship and the other is not," Leclerc explained.

"I think this is normal, in every team it is happening. But yeah, I believe they will let us race at the beginning of the season."

Leclerc says that he knows Vettel only a "little bit" but revealed that his new team-mate was very supportive to him during the earlier stages of his career.

"He has always been very nice to me," Leclerc revealed. "Every time I was doing a good job in the simulator, once I was in Formula Two, he would always send a text and that was great. And it will be even better to work with him, for sure I have a lot to learn from him."