Charles Leclerc's former aide shares the significance of having Sebastian Vettel as his teammate at Ferrari

Charles Leclerc's former race engineer, Xavi Marcos, shared how big a role Sebastian Vettel played in the Ferrari driver's growth in 2019. Leclerc impressed a lot of people in his rookie season in 2018 and hence was promoted to the Italian marque team in 2019.

Leclerc was paired with Vettel, the 4X champion and a leader. In the first season, he outscored his veteran Ferrari teammate and had a few impressive performances.

Charles Leclerc's close aide at the time, his race engineer Xavi Marcos, revealed that having Vettel as a teammate was a major advantage because the German was very detailed in everything he did. For Leclerc, this was a brilliant benchmark, as he learned a lot from him.

Talking about the importance of having the 4X world champion as a teammate, Marcos told Pitdebrief:

“So Sebastian, yeah, he had a lot more experience. So we tried to learn as much as we could from Sebastian. Really detailed person, wanted to know everything on the car. And that’s what we focus on. And also tyre management on their side. So we are trying to learn from them. And nowadays, Charles is quite good on tyre management.”

Marcos on Charles Leclerc's failed 2022 F1 title campaign bid

Charles Leclerc was in contention for the 2022 title at the start of the season. When the regulations changed, Ferrari was the only team, alongside Red Bull, that made the most of them. The driver won two of the first three races and led the championship against Max Verstappen.

However, as the season progressed, Ferrari's strategic inadequacy, coupled with poor car development and reliability issues meant that the title never became a reality. The team also faced a lot of criticism for the season, but Marcos felt that the season was still better as compared to the one where the car was just not competitive. He said:

“It was frustrating, but at some point, you realize we had a competitive car, and I would prefer to have a competitive car and not finish because as an engineer, you are there.”

He added:

“First, you have a competitive car, and then you need a reliable car, and in terms of strategy, yeah, everyone does mistakes. Whatever Ferrari does, it’s always more public, but again, it’s not easy. You take some decisions with the information that you have at that time, and that’s what it is.”

Charles Leclerc and Marcos split up last season as Ferrari decided to switch things up a bit. The Monagasque driver does have a massive challenge in hand this season as he teams up with Lewis Hamilton.