F1 News: Former Driver Makes Bizarre Charles Leclerc Comparison In Strong Championship Fight

Saajan Jogia | Nov 10, 2024

Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc (16) of Team Monaco stands on the podium after the 2024 Formula One US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Former Red Bull driver David Coulthard made an unusual comparison, likening Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to a "puppy occasionally peeing on the carpet," likely referring to Leclerc’s mistakes that compromised crucial points and positions. Coulthard believes Formula 1 is on the verge of a "golden era," with Ferrari and McLaren poised to smooth out their rough edges and challenge Max Verstappen competitively.

In stark contrast to the 2023 season, where Red Bull dominated its rivals with a remarkable 21 wins out of 22 Grands Prix, the current season has highlighted the impact of a more competitive field as F1 teams continue to refine and master the development of their intricate ground-effect cars.

This season has presented ample opportunities for Lando Norris and Leclerc, both of whom have capitalized on their car’s performance as well as Red Bull’s balance issues with the RB20. However, both drivers have made costly errors, as seen during the recent Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Despite starting from pole, Norris finished in sixth place, hindered by misjudgments during the race. Ferrari, on the other hand, compromised Leclerc’s podium chances by making the premature decision to pit him early rather than waiting for an ideal window, leaving him to ultimately finish in fifth place instead of securing a top-three finish. While Ferrari is also to blame, this gives an opportunity to the Red team to be wise with its strategic decisions.

While McLaren and Ferrari have worked on the cars that could challenge Red Bull this year, Coulthard believes the intense racing at the front could get even better if both drivers could up their ante, just enough to give Verstappen a tough time. Speaking on the Formula For Success podcast, he also made a bizarre comparison involving Leclerc. He said:

"I think that Max [Verstappen] arrived as the finished article, just with a few rough edges, when he came to F1, where for others, it's taken a bit longer.

“Charles, he's still like a puppy occasionally peeing on the carpet.

“But once they iron out all those little mistakes, I think we're going into a golden era of F1.”

Coulthard hopes that Norris can extend that championship fight to the Abu Dhabi season finale, though there are very high chances of Verstappen securing his fourth title in Las Vegas in two weeks, considering his 62-point lead over the McLaren driver. He continued:

“Every driver takes each lights out as an opportunity.

“I think outside of the car, he [Lando Norris] probably realises that he's going to take an element of the racing Gods intervening - a reliability issue, a crash and unfinished or something for Max.

“Max can wrap it up in Vegas, we'd all love to see it go down to the final in Abu Dhabi.

“They're both very gentle, normal people out of the race car. Their own racing personalities, of course, is in the car, and Max gets his elbows out, probably a bit more than Lando does.

“But this is all part of growing… what is Lando? 26 or 27 years old. 

“They're still boys in many ways. I felt it was about 30 when I kind of figured out what life was about, and that coincided with my best performance.”