David Coulthard makes Michael Schumacher joke after Charles Leclerc gave him ‘shivers’

F1: Leclerc says Ferrari career has 'exceeded expectations'

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David Coulthard has compared Charles Leclerc’s dominant display in Australia to those of F1 icon Michael Schumacher. Coulthard finished in the Drivers’ Championship top three on five separate occasions during his own distinguished career, toppled in three of those seasons by Schumacher himself. 

Leclerc kick-started his dominant weekend in Saturday qualifying where he took pole position by almost three tenths. He became the first Ferrari driver to achieve a Grand Slam race weekend in 12 years when he converted that pole into a fourth career win on Sunday, having also led the race in its entirety and set the fastest lap. 

The Monegasque’s title hopes were also dealt a boost after Max Verstappen, who many see as his key rival this year, was forced to abandon his race with another Red Bull power unit issue. 

It crowned off a dominant few days for the Prancing Horse which served as more proof that they will be challenging for the top prizes this season, and Leclerc has the talent to match Ferrari legends of yesteryear. 

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“I had a little bit of a shiver actually, a flashback to when Michael was dominant in the Ferrari,” Coulthard joked with Channel 4, “All my fears came back again!”

“We’ve got to acknowledge he [Leclerc] is a quality driver, a great human being. Ferrari has worked hard, and [team principal] Mattia Binotto, what a cool character he’s been under all the pressure of the lack of performance over the last two years. That [Leclerc’s drive] was dominant. That really was an impressive display.”

While Leclerc may only now be entering the peak of his F1 powers, Schumacher remains towards the top of virtually every desirable all-time list having dominated in the 1990s and 2000s with Ferrari. The German still shares the top spot with Lewis Hamilton in terms of all-time world titles as the pair boast seven apiece. 

Despite the early signs suggesting that Ferrari and Leclerc will run away with team and individual honours, Verstappen and Red Bull are likely to take encouragement from claims that the Prancing Horse will not make any significant performance changes for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Team boss Mattia Binotto pointed out that the format of the sprint race weekend will not give them enough time to do so and assess the changes in practice. 

Red Bull only need to rectify their reliability issues, therefore, for Verstappen to be in with a chance of getting one back on Leclerc. The Dutchman has been forced to retire in two of the season’s three races so far, while the only one he did complete resulted in a blockbuster victory over his Ferrari rival. 

A 46-point gap still makes for grim reading at such an early stage in the season, and he may have to beat Ferrari on home turf next time out if he is to begin closing the gap. 

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