F1 News
Hakkinen: Leclerc has a lot of work to do to reach Vettel's level
Mika Hakkinen has weighed in on the Ferrari driver situation and he believes it will take a lot of hard work and a lot of time for Charles Leclerc to reach the level of his teammate, Sebastian Vettel.
It has been a controversial start to life for Leclerc at the Scuderia, with team orders, reliability and mistakes all costing him at points this season. At the most recent race in Monaco, he failed to make it out of Q1 because of a mistake from his team and then he was forced to retire early after picking up a puncture.
Early in the season, many thought Leclerc deserved more of a shot at being Ferrari's number one but Hakkinen believes it will take hard work and time for the Monegasque to get anywhere near his teammate's level.
“Vettel has a great experience and is fast," Hakkinen told Marca.
"He will need time to be at Vettel's level, the German has four titles.
“We need involvement, the ability to manage the people in the team and Leclerc has a lot of work to do.
"It's fast, but only with speed you don't become a champion of the world. It must always be faster than Vettel."