Leclerc frustrated by comments: 'I don't like to see 'Charles 2.0' title'

Marc Gene recently labeled Leclerc as a 2.0 version of himself. The Ferrari driver himself does not like being labeled as 'Charles 2.0', but admits that there is improvement to be seen compared to 2021.

Leclerc has started the 2022 season strongly. The Monegasque won the opening race in Bahrain and was only narrowly beaten by Max Verstappen in Saudi Arabia. On the Friday in Australia, Leclerc looks strong again.

In conversation with The Race the 24-year-old driver let it be known that he is not a fan of some statements. "One thing that I don’t like – I’ve seen it everywhere and I don’t like to see it – is ‘Charles 2.0’. This is not the case. I’ve had growth from year to year that is linear.”

His previous season was anything but bad, yet the Ferrari driver finished behind his teammate Carlos Sainz in the drivers' championship. The Spaniard scored more podiums, but Leclerc believes he lost a lot of points in 2021 due to bad luck.

Now that Ferrari can compete for victories again, however, Leclerc can show what he's got. "Of course I probably am even better now that I’m fighting for wins because this is what I like to do and it’s great to be back here. But overall, I think it’s just linear growth from year to year and there’s not a huge step from last year.”