CHARLES LECLERC
“LECLERC IS A DRIVER WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY MUCH TO MY FATHER’S LIKING, AN INTELLIGENT FELLOW, GIFTED WITH INCREDIBLE TALENT IN EVERY RESPECT, HIGHLY CONCENTRATED. IF WE GIVE HIM THE RIGHT CAR, HE WILL GIVE US A LOT OF PLEASURE”
PIERO FERRARI
PIERO FERRARI HAS LONG BEEN AN UNDERSTATED presence at the heart of the company founded by his father Enzo. Although powerful behind the scenes, Ferrari’s vice-chairman has preferred to keep a low profile in public in the 33 years since his father’s death.
So when Ferrari makes a statement in public, it carries real weight. Recently, he chose the occasion of an award ceremony held in his honour to lavish praise on Charles Leclerc.
The 24-year old, Ferrari said, “is a driver who would have been very much to my father’s liking, an intelligent fellow, gifted with incredible talent in every respect, highly concentrated. If we give him the right car, he will give us a lot of pleasure”.
From a team founded by and operated in the image of motorsport’s most celebrated figure, that is quite a statement. It places Ferrari’s current lead driver in the lineage of the legends of the team’s past, drivers who achieved great things whether or not the cars were at the very highest level – Tazio Nuvolari, Niki Lauda, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso. And most of all, given the history behind Ferrari’s remarks, Gilles Villeneuve.
Villeneuve carved an indelible place in F1 history for his daring and remarkable feats at the wheel of a Ferrari from 1978 until his death
