What F1 can expect from Ferrari's prodigy

Charles Leclerc is confident, yet humble. Excitable, yet focused. Riding the crest of a wave all the way to Formula 1. He spent much of 2017 building momentum in a sensational rookie Formula 2 campaign, while often being spotted playing football or tennis next to the paddock-parked trucks. In short, he's a special and likeable talent.

After claiming seven wins and eight poles on his way to the F2 crown, as well as making four FP1 appearances for Sauber last year, Leclerc was signed as a race driver for the Swiss squad in 2018.

Leclerc has been backed by Ferrari since 2016; Sauber will run the Italian marque's up-to-date F1 power units this year, while the team has a major new brand partnership with Alfa Romeo. So, just like his friend and mentor Jules Bianchi in '13, Leclerc is Ferrari's latest upcoming star preparing to take their F1 bow.

"It's unbelievable, first of all," he explains. "To arrive in F1 is crazy because it's a dream come true, and then to arrive with the return of Alfa Romeo, which is such a historic name, is just great. Then, on the other side, I'm not putting additional pressure on myself - the goal for me will be exactly the same as the other years: give the best of myself and try to bring the best results possible home."

Leclerc's focus is one of his key strengths. When smoke poured from his engine during the early stages of the Silverstone F2 feature race last year, his Prema Racing team momentarily panicked, but Leclerc carried on undeterred. Nothing stopped him that day, not the oil leak with all the hallmarks of a serious engine failure, not the pre-race brake fire, and not a wing mirror going missing in the closing stages.

In 2017, he deployed the tried-and- tested 'one-race-at-a-time, one-season-at-a-time' approach and it paid off handsomely when he became the first rookie to clinch the GP2/F2 title since '09. Calm and motivated, it's no wonder he's sticking with that approach ahead of his F1 debut.

Ferrari has had a significant hand in Leclerc's development and improvement from his 2016 GP3 season, where he won the title but sometimes struggled to adjust from FP1 running with Haas F1 back to his car in the third tier. As well as being able to see how Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen go about their business, and driving the simulator at Maranello, the 20-year-old's focus is being further honed by Ferrari's Driver Academy.

"They were training me mentally and physically," says Leclerc, who spent the winter engaging in mountain-based physical preparation for his F1 debut. "So all of these things helped me to become the driver I am today - obviously there's still a long way to go and they are still helping me."

From a practical point of view, Ferrari's support has been very valuable for Leclerc ahead of his first competitive grand prix outing: "There's no track that comes along [in 2018] that I've never driven on the simulator. I have the base of all the circuits because of the simulator, so that's great."

Helpfully for Leclerc, his focused approach is paired with a combination of searing pace and steely determination. After clinching pole at the F2 season opener he faded to third in the feature race, but then charged to a maiden second-tier win in the sprint event and improved his tyre-management skills to score four of the next five race-one wins.

"To work with, he's quite a good guy - Charles is very open," says Guillaume Capietto, technical director at Prema, which clearly adored having Leclerc in its ranks in 2017. "It was a very good year in terms of atmosphere.

"The ability to put your car in the right position in the race to overtake is something that both Hamilton and Leclerc have" Guillaume Capietto, technical director at Prema

"He's more cool and when there is a mistake he takes a lot on his side, even when sometimes it's not fully his side he says, 'OK, it's my fault and I go [and work] on it.'"

Leclerc's analytical approach was also a strength in 2017. Prema team boss Rene Rosin recalled him asking for feedback on where he could improve despite only a harsh 10-second time penalty scuppering a weekend double in Baku.

At the season finale in Abu Dhabi, he forensically explained how he'd missed out on pole by focusing on the first sector at the expense of tyre life later on in the lap.

F1's aero-heavy but varied machinery may not produce the kind of spectacular racing often seen on the grand prix support bill, and Sauber has been the championship's de facto backmarker since Manor's demise, but Leclerc is unlikely to give anything less than his maximum, all of the time. As if a Ferrari-supported emerging superstar with back- to-back junior titles would ever do otherwise.

Leclerc's default attacking mode was on full display during his F2 campaign, as evidenced by his Bahrain sprint-race win, and back-of-the-grid charges in Hungary and Italy. In 2006, and then working for ART Grand Prix, Capietto saw the same attitude in another rookie second-tier champion: Lewis Hamilton.

"They are strong characters," he explains. "They always [come back], when there is something. Like when we were disqualified from some races, [Leclerc] always came back very strong. Even starting from the back he pushed - and I remember this also from Lewis. In Turkey he did a spin in race two, so he was last, and he came back to P2 driving, like, one second quicker than he was doing before. [Leclerc] is able to do the same - when we started last in Budapest, he came back to P4, producing a very strong race and lap times.

"I also must say the ability to put your car in the right position in the race to overtake is something that both have and that is at quite a high level."

At times last season, Leclerc's performances were almost PlayStation-esque - that drive from the back in Hungary (somewhat aided by a late-race safety car) makes excellent repeat viewing. But he's sensibly setting realistic performance targets ahead of his F1 debut.

"In F1 you can only put the target of giving the best of yourself in the car, and that's what I will do in 2018," he says. "For the results, it's quite hard to predict anything in F1 and the target will be to improve the car during the year and then see where we finish at the end of the year. But then obviously I will have to give my best in the car and this is the most important [thing] to me.

"In a way, the goal doesn't change, but what you can expect before a season is a bit different because in F1 it's quite hard to expect anything before you actually put the car down on track."

Rain is something of a machinery leveller in motorsport, and it often helps the truly great drivers show off their skills.

There weren't too many occasions where the F2 field had to cope with wet weather and changing conditions last season, but when they did Leclerc took full advantage.

At Spa, after also missing most of practice when his car's fire extinguisher unloaded itself as he ran through Eau Rouge, Leclerc topped the wet session by a hefty 0.6 seconds, and then catapulted into victory contention in the wet-to-dry feature-race thriller at Monza (below), which ended in final-lap drama when he came together with Nyck de Vries.

"He's a very good driver," says Capietto. "He's one of those, for example, you will see that they are always in front when it's damp."

"They are always anticipating the evolution of the track and are much quicker in these conditions compared to when it's normal conditions and everybody is able to be close to the pace."

Prema's esteem for Leclerc radiated through the team last season. It had a family-like atmosphere - taking the highs and lows together, while having as much fun as possible. Of course it's easy to be happy when things are going well, but there were tough times too.

As well as the disqualifications - Leclerc also lost a dominant feature-race win in Belgium due to excessive plank wear - he collided with team-mate Antonio Fuoco at the Red Bull Ring. It was clearly a racing incident, and there was little animosity between them then, or throughout the season, with Fuoco usually joining Leclerc for a game of tennis or football.

"My career at Ferrari, for now, it's so far away that I can't...I need to really focus on the season itself more than the future" Leclerc on Ferrari

Leclerc also proved he was willing to play the team game at the season finale, when he almost stopped on the run to the finish in the Abu Dhabi feature race to hand Fuoco the final spot on the podium at Prema's behest.

Intra-team politics and dynamics are on another level in F1, but Leclerc sees no reason why he won't get on with new team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

"[During] the FP1s last year I got to know him and he's a really cool guy," Leclerc says. "To be honest, I've never had any problems with my team-mates and I'm always pretty chilled - and he looks the same. So, I don't think there will be any problems."

Thanks to its new engine, Sauber is not guaranteed to be propping up the F1 field this year. The team will also want to turn heads in the first season of its Alfa tie-up. But, as he's already pointed out, that won't faze Leclerc.

It helps that as well as getting to know Ericsson during his practice outings last year, Sauber is not unfamiliar territory to the Monegasque racer. The sessions also gave him a solid starting base going into the new year, although some things will of course change with the new car.

"I've worked with all of [Sauber] last year during the FP1s, which I think has been very helpful for me to be more familiar with the team," Leclerc explains. "It helped because F1 is very different to F2 - especially as all the procedures and things like that are quite hard to learn and to be familiar with.

"In F1, I believe from one year to another the cars change quite a lot so I'll have to readapt to a new car. But this is the same for everyone else so I will just try to be on the pace as quickly as possible."

As Ferrari's rising star, there are already questions about when Leclerc will be promoted to the Prancing Horse's works team - with some even previously suggesting that he should have got a drive for 2018. While that was no doubt a step too far for Ferrari's famously conservative approach to driver line-ups, it's fair to say that unless Kimi Raikkonen avoids another of his methodically mediocre showings, those questions will continue getting louder.

Ultimately - and not unsurprisingly, given his calm, down-to-earth approach - Leclerc is not even thinking about a Ferrari call-up for 2019 just yet. He knows he has to let his results do the talking, centre on what's coming next with Sauber, and take each opportunity as it arises.

"My career at Ferrari, for now, it's so far away that I can't..." he ponders. "I think my mindset for 2017, I need to take it to '18 and really focus on the season itself more than the future. At the moment, I just want to do the best job possible in '18 and then if I get good opportunities for' 19, then even better."

Confident, humble, focused - don't expect the wave to break for Charles Leclerc any time soon.