"He is a better talent than Charles Leclerc": F1 pundit shares surprising revelation about McLaren driver

F1 pundit Karun Chandok made the shocking revelation that according to Prema, the team Charles Leclerc drove for in the junior category, Oscar Piastri was the better talent.

Both Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc had stellar junior careers. Oscar Piastri won a dominant title in F2 against a very competitive field, while Charles Leclerc's F2 campaign is often cited as one of, if not the best championship campaign in the series' history.

Charles Leclerc has since then graduated to F1 where he drove for Sauber in 2018 and saw further promotion to Ferrari in 2019. He has since then become a mainstay at the front of the grid and was P2 in the championship last season.

Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, is making his debut this season and F1 pundits are raving about him already. In his appearance on SkySports' pre-season podcast, Karun Chandhok said,

"I do think he is, on pure talent, based on, I know him a little bit and speak to his engineers at Prema who he was with in F2 and F3, and they think he is, in fact, they went to the point of saying that he is a better talent than Charles Leclerc when they had Leclerc at Prema, he was genuinely the best talent to have come through the junior formula since Max Verstappen. I hope it works out for him because it's not looking good for McLaren so far."

Charles Leclerc is the key man at Ferrari

Previewing the 2023 F1 season, former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa felt that Leclerc was the key driver of the Italian team. Leclerc and Sainz have been together for two seasons now and in those 2 seasons, each driver has beaten the other once. However, the Brazilian felt Leclerc held a clear advantage over Sainz as he said,

"The car must be successful and the team functioning, the rest must be done by the drivers. After five or six races you understand who’s leading. Last year, after three grands prix, everything was already clear. Sainz was the best in his first year, but the car was not competitive. When the car was strong, in 2022, Charles was clearly at the top. If he does the same this year, it will be difficult for Carlos to recreate the situation of 2021."

It will be interesting to see how the season unravels and if Ferrari can provide its drivers with a car capable of fighting for the title.