Charles Leclerc has been criticised for being too nice to become a world champion, likened to a "Labrador" or an "ideal son-in-law" by one racing legend.
The Monegasque racer's talent is unquestionable. So obvious were his skills from a young age that Ferrari signed him after only a year in Formula 1 and handed him a five-year contract – commonplace in the football work but a notably lengthy deal by F1 standards.
He had his best chance to date of becoming world champion in 2022, but his title challenge fell apart in the middle of the season. He was not helped by engine reliability problems and a handful of costly tactical blunders made by his team which certainly cost him a significant amount of points.
But Leclerc made mistakes of his own. The most memorable was at the French Grand Prix, when he crashed out of the race when leading – the gutteral scream of "No!" over team radio was evidence enough that he knew any title challenger cannot be making such big errors.
Despite scoring 62 points more than his team-mate Carlos Sainz and finishing three places above him in the championship, Touring Cars legend Tom Coronel believes that what he saw of Leclerc this year only reinforced his belief that he is overhyped in terms of being a title contender.
"Leclerc disappointed me because he went very well at the beginning of the year, when everyone shouted 'He is a champion candidate', but personally I have always been more of a fan of his teammate Carlos Sainz, who had a lot of bad luck," Coronel wrote for Formule1.nl.
"People pretend that Sainz is second driver at Ferrari, but look at the scoring – Sainz was in front in 2021. Leclerc gets too much credit for me, compared to Sainz. Yes, in the beginning he competed for the world title, but in the end you have to conclude that he is not quite there.
"Leclerc can drive really fast, that's right, but that makes him a qualifying guy for me, not a good racer. With Max Verstappen it is the other way around. Of course, Max can also qualify well, but Leclerc really excels at that. On Sundays he makes too many mistakes and does not handle the tyres well. In Imola and Paul Ricard it was also because he was being chased by Max."
He went on to suggest Leclerc does not have enough edge to become a world champion and suggested he is too calm after mistakes made by his team. Coronel concluded: "Where is the emotion? You then have to swing your helmet through the pit box and headbutt the motorman! Leclerc is much too neat for that. He is an ideal son-in-law, a Labrador."
