F1: Why Haas should take up Charles Leclerc

Like every year, once the season sets in and 3-4 races go by, the driver market kicks into gear. Kimi Raikkonen’s future is once again up for speculation and rumors are that a certain Monegasque who’s currently driving for Sauber can replace him. But historically Ferrari has been averse to taking young inexperienced drivers in its stable. And it’s a trend they shouldn’t break with Leclerc either. Instead, they need to pull the strings and place the young driver with Haas for the next two years.

And the Haas team should proactively approach the Ferrari junior as well. In his two years worth of stint with Haas, Grosjean has been inconsistent to say the best. While Magnussen has started to find his feet after his tumultuous career, the same cannot be said about the Frenchman. Agreed he had some very decent results in the Haas, he has thrown away a lot of good ones too.

The American newbie team has been greatly helped by Grosjean’s experience but has been hindered a lot by incessant moaning as well. In the 3rd year of its operations, things have settled a lot for Haas and now it’s time they turn their attention towards getting drivers who are consistent and show promise.

Magnussen has taken the lead now.

The team did exactly that when they banked on Grosjean and took a gamble on Magnussen. A move that’s beginning to show results now as Magnussen is beginning to take the lead within the team and Grosjean has faltered.

It’s only 5 races but Grosjean’s failings have been spectacular. It’s also the reason the team is sitting at 7th on the constructor's table behind Force India instead of being higher up.

Coming to Leclerc, the kid had a slow start to Formula 1. Paired against Ericsson, it was expected of him to make an impact right from the get-go given his hype. He was expected to impress like Giovinazzi did, substituting for the injured Wehrlien at the 11th hour in Australia last year in Qualifying.

Leclerc en route to a brilliant P6

But now I’m glad he did not go the Giovinazzi way, the Italian faltering after his Australia heroics. Leclerc, on the other hand, took his time, made many mistakes along the way, but he continued to grow with each outing. And once he was able to find his feet and began outpacing the Swede, he never looked back.

Being the perennial backmarkers, Qualifying is the only day anyone driving a Sauber can impress. And Leclerc really stepped it up, taking the Alfa Romeo Sauber to Q2 on multiple occasions when his more experienced teammate couldn’t make it past Q1.

Leclerc scored his first points finishing an impressive P6 in Baku. While that position was the result of a crazy attrition-filled Baku race, more impressive was the P10 in Spain. He for as long as possible kept the aerodynamically superior McLaren and Force India at bay in a track which rewards aerodynamics. And Leclerc is going to grow further, remember he’s only in his rookie year.

The Leclerc hype is starting to feel real and recently he had the nod of Vettel as well. Ferrari knows that they have a driver in hand who’s of Verstappen’s caliber and a future superstar. The last thing they should be doing is throwing the kid into the deep end and that too at the pressure cooker that is Ferrari. Instead, they would be better off by placing him at Haas from next season onwards and groom him for two years to take up the seat at the Italian Stable when Vettel retires which is very likely to be the end of 2020.

As for the next season, Ferrari can very much continue with the Finn. He’s apolitical, the team is in harmony because of his camaraderie with Vettel and his level of performance is closer to Vettel than it ever has been. So to retain Kimi seems to be the no-brainer at least for 2019 and then pick up someone from the midfield in 2020 to provide continuity when Vettel bids adieu and new boy Leclerc takes up the charge.

The man Leclerc should take the mantle from at Ferrari once he steps down

This move will benefit all the three parties involved. It’ll motivate Leclerc by giving him a sense of promotion and reward for his hard work. It’ll benefit Haas by giving them a talented driver to run who on paper is showing more potential then inconsistent Grosjean. And for Ferrari, it’ll prepare their next superstar while allaying any doubts of Leclerc getting poached by any of the rivals.