Vasseur: Leclerc was helped by Ericsson's improvement

Sauber team principal Fred Vasseur has said his former driver Charles Leclerc had the stellar 2018-season he had because of his teammate Marcus Ericsson, who improved massively compared to the prior season.

Leclerc enjoyed an incredible rookie season, dragging Sauber to heights they hadn't reached in years past. The team finished eighth in the constructors' championship after being bottom for several seasons. He became the talk of the town as the season progressed, as he surpassed expectations weekend after weekend with his blistering pace.

So much so, that Ferrari came calling, offering the Monegasque a seat at the team next to Sebastian Vettel, making him the second youngest driver in the team's history.

Fred Vasseur, team principal at Sauber, thinks Leclerc did better last season because of his teammate, Marcus Ericsson, who has now left F1 to do IndyCar.

“I think [Leclerc] did a very good job, and he did a very good job also because Marcus was improving,” Vasseur told GPfans.

“If you consider Marcus compared to [2017] I think he did a huge step forward. When he first hit the track in Melbourne he was six kilos lighter than the previous year and from the beginning he made a step forward from then.

“Even in the last part of the season, he was consistently at the same lap time as Charles. He was in front of Charles in Sao Paulo, just behind in Austin, and it was very helpful for Charles as well to have someone as a reference like Marcus.

“Marcus also has the advantage of very good technical feedback and he helped us a lot at some stages of the season to take decisions on the technical side. When you come to F1 from F2 it’s not easy to have a reference on the performance.”