Juan Pablo Montoya believes Charles Leclerc has the right opportunity to learn from Lewis Hamilton amid the Monegasque driver's current struggles. Hamilton is experiencing his best spell with
Ferrari at the moment. After finishing second twice behind Kimi Antonelli in Canada and Monaco, the seven-time
Formula 1 world champion claimed his first victory with the Scuderia at the
Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Leclerc is experiencing a rough spell. Despite several difficult weekends in a row, including DNFs caused by issues with the SF-26, the Monegasque driver has also consistently been behind his teammate.
Speaking on
F1 TV's broadcast, Montoya believes Leclerc can now learn from the British world champion. The former Formula 1 driver explained:
"This is a really important time, for example, for Charles to look at how Lewis brought the team forward and learn."Of course, he wants to beat Lewis, and he will beat Lewis in a lot of races as well, but this is an amazing opportunity that Charles has to understand what makes Lewis Hamilton a seven-time world champion."
Leclerc reflects on disappointing Barcelona GP
Speaking to
GPblog, among others, after the race,
Leclerc explained:
"Yeah, I lost the power steering. Then with the VSC, I don't know if it will have changed significantly our race. But the two stops I think was a bit of a mistake on my side. I think the three stops were a bit better. It wouldn't have changed massively. The biggest problem was starting P10 and that was on me. And then obviously the technical problem at the end."The team has been pushing massively to bring upgrades and it seems to be working fine. So now I've got to be with him up there, which hasn't been the case since Canada. This weekend has been better generally, but obviously with what happened yesterday. I just need to reset and come back in our share and hopefully putting everything together."
However, team boss Frederic Vasseur
is not worried about Leclerc's form. The Frenchman explained:
"I'm more positive with Charles than two weeks ago or three weeks ago. He had a good feeling with the car. He had confidence."Then the fact that he was starting P10 and we changed the strategy in the middle of the race, it was difficult for him that he pitted once again one lap before the safety car. But it is like it is. But I think the approach and the feeling is much better for Charles today than it was two or three weeks ago."