Source: Sauber F1 Team

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Ericsson has hope for 2019 seat after Leclerc's departure

Ericsson has hope for 2019 seat after Leclerc's departure

23-09-2018 14:05
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Marcus Ericsson hopes that his recent spike in form has been enough to earn himself a seat at Sauber for next season, as the instances where he beat his teammate Charles Leclerc have given him hope.

Ericsson has been out-qualified by Leclerc a whopping 12 times out of 15 attempts, making it the second highest difference between teammates in qualifying. Only McLaren, where Fernando Alonso has beaten Stoffel Vandoorne every single Saturday this season, have a bigger gap.

Still, Ericsson is happy with the way in which he has performed recently, beating the Ferrari-bound Leclerc on some occasions.

"I feel that I stepped it up the last five or six weekends," Ericsson is quoted by GPfans.

"I scored more points than Charles [between Germany and Italy] and Charles has signed a contract with Ferrari for a few years so I think that says quite a bit. 

"If I can keep doing that, or even better, that's what I need to do. 

"If that's enough for a contract or not, that's not up to me, but I need to keep pushing and trying to impress.

"Now there's only one seat left for next year so I need to really impress and work hard to show that I should really be in the team.

"I usually do my best racing when I have the biggest pressure on my shoulders so I don't really mind it."

Kimi Raikkonen has already been confirmed to be manning one of the seats at Sauber in 2019, leaving one more seat for the taking. Reports have come out that Antonio Giovinazzi, a Ferrari youth driver, could be stationed at Sauber, leaving Ericsson homeless, but the Swede is still well within a shout. As he said himself, these last races of the season could be pivotal for his F1-career.