Ricciardo: 'I see Leclerc as the delayed version of Bianchi'

Jules Bianchi was killed in a tragic accident in Japan in 2014. The good friend of the current Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc has driven almost two seasons in total in the king's class of motorsport. This for the Marussia team in the rearguard, but his talent should definitely not be underestimated. According to Daniel Ricciardo the Frenchman could have achieved the same successes as Leclerc does now.

Future at Ferrrari

The future for Bianchi looked bright with a possible spot at Ferrari, but unfortunately it never came to that. From the perspective that if he had, Bianchi would definitely have won races. This says Daniel Ricciardo in a video on the Twitter channel of the Renault F1 team.

"It wasn't like Jules was underrated, but we never got to see him in a top car, so maybe people didn't appreciate how good he was going to be," says the Australian who sees Bianchi as one of his past rivals. "You think of his drive in that Marussia in Monaco in 2014, the team's first points. Monaco is like Macau in that there's no way to fluke a result there. It was absolutely on merit".

'Leclerc is Bianchi'

"It's another part of what makes his story so sad, because [Bianchi] would have been in a top team and a race winner by now for sure," says Ricciardo. "In some ways, I feel Charles is doing now what Jules would have been doing. It's like Charles is the delayed version of what Jules would have done with the success he's having."