How Leclerc established himself as Ferrari's new alpha

How does an understudy oust the star? When does the beta know it is time to replace the alpha? What does a support act need to do to become the main attraction? Look to Charles Leclerc and one may find an all-encompassing answer. After all, he has unwittingly become the perfect Formula 1 subject for such questions.

Even if Leclerc wasn't asking himself these questions in relation to his position within Ferrari at the start of 2019, plenty were asking on his behalf. The 'what' seemed a certainty: eventually Leclerc would displace Sebastian Vettel within Ferrari. The 'when' was a little more unclear, but surely it would only be a matter of time. The main unknown was 'how'. After all, team principal Mattia Binotto called Vettel - a four-time world champion now in his fifth season with Ferrari - Maranello's "guide" to the title. Leclerc was the highly rated young upstart of whom Ferrari expected great things but did not want to crush under the pressure of expectation.

Leclerc knew this, accepted he would start life as a de facto number two and called it "my job then to turn things around". Some nine months later, he may sit and reflect on a job well done, with two races particularly clear in his, Binotto's and Vettel's memories.

A maiden F1 victory for Leclerc in Belgium was also Ferrari's first of the season. He followed that up a week later by winning in Italy.

Vettel spun early in Ferrari's home race, then picked up a penalty for rejoining straight into the path of Lance Stroll. While Leclerc lapped up the love of the tifosi on a wild Monza podium, Vettel was left to skulk in the shadows.

Leclerc's progress to becoming Ferrari's main man was not the product of a sudden surge in form after the summer break, though. He was causing Vettel, and Ferrari, problems from the very first race. On a dismal weekend for the team, Ferrari had to order Charles to hold position in Australia, after he caught Vettel for fourth. Leclerc complied. But one week later, when potential victory was on the line, he did not.

"I had the opportunity and I just didn't see myself lifting and staying behind," said Leclerc, just a few hours after he had ignored a Ferrari request to hold station after catching Vettel for the lead in Bahrain, having thrown away his pole position advantage with a poor start.

Leclerc failed to win the race because of an unprecedented short circuit in his Ferrari's control electronics. But the message had clearly been sent: Leclerc's not here to play number two.

Ferrari proved wildly inconsistent in the early months of the season as it grappled with a low-drag, low-downforce car that left it incapable of regularly challenging Mercedes. But when the car was at its most competitive, Leclerc was the man mainly doing the damage.

He should have fought for pole and victory in Azerbaijan but blundered in qualifying. He had the edge in Monaco too but was stitched up by Ferrari failing to send him out for a second run in Q1. An inferior strategy arguably cost him the win late on in Austria, aligned with some aggressive Max Verstappen driving. And another reliability problem stymied Leclerc's pole bid in Germany, before the treacherous conditions caught him (among many) out in the race.

Leclerc made some crucial errors, but he was also at the forefront of Ferrari's attack, piling the pressure on Vettel in the process - sometimes quietly, sometimes in full view.

"The way that Charles is growing is very positive," Binotto said mid-season. "He's a talent, we knew it, but I think he's really learning from mistakes, and that's more important. Even his collaboration with the team, his way of supporting the team in the development of the car, is improving race by race, day by day. If there's anything that's surprising us it is how much he's improving through the races."

Leclerc is a fiercely self-critical young man. Perhaps that is why he proved so adept at dealing with what Binotto calls "a lot of pressure on shoulders". He was placing the heaviest load on himself. That, and the fact he had already forged a formidable mental strength from his karting days.

By the summer break, Ferrari was well out of the championship hunt. But Leclerc had made it clear he was a serious threat to beat Vettel for intra-team honours, and maybe even third in the standings. Going into the holiday, Leclerc had kickstarted a run of beating Vettel in qualifying that would extend to a phenomenal nine consecutive sessions. Only Vettel's pole in
 Japan stopped the rot.

Leclerc put this staggering form down to a change in approach. He clocked that his 'every lap might be my last' attitude - a legacy of spending his rookie season scrapping for Q2 and Q3 places in a Sauber - wasn't the right fit for Ferrari. Instead, Leclerc shifted his outlook: Q1 and Q2 were about bedding in and finding a rhythm.
The top-10 shootout, when pole was up for grabs, was when he would unleash everything.

It worked. He shot from an average grid slot of 6.3 through the first six races to 4.0 over the next six. "What is perhaps most exciting about Leclerc is not what he is capable of now, though," said Binotto before the summer break. "But where he goes from here."

As it turned out, Leclerc would get stronger. Qualifying went from good to great, as Leclerc took four poles in a row from Spa to Sochi. But he started to match that with stronger race pace too. Vettel held an advantage in tyre management during the first half of the season, but defeat to Vettel in Hungary after qualifying ahead helped Leclerc finally realise the extent of his weakness in this area. A lot of homework followed. In Belgium and Italy, Leclerc defeated Lewis Hamilton - arguably the outright best in race management on the current grid - in victory fights.

It would have been a dream scenario for Ferrari if it did not come at the cost of some intra-team harmony. As Leclerc was establishing himself as the new golden boy of not just Ferrari, but F1 as a whole, Vettel's season unraveled further into one of mistakes and missed opportunities. And Vettel was not entirely happy with Leclerc. Especially as Leclerc's pole at Monza came at the expense of honouring an agreement to give Seb a tow on the final run. Tensions grew in Singapore, where Leclerc led from pole early on but lost the lead, and the win, to Vettel because of the strategies the team enforced upon its drivers. Things spiked in Russia, where Vettel refused to move aside after a choreographed start in which poleman Leclerc gave third-place starter Vettel a tow and the lead to help get him ahead of Hamilton.

Leclerc had already had his wrists slapped for the Monza qualifying incident and losing his cool over the radio in Singapore, but Russia threatened a bigger divide. Binotto met with Leclerc and Vettel independently at Maranello, to establish what happened and how it could be avoided in future. All parties claimed afterwards the "misunderstanding" had been put to bed.

Through this process, Leclerc continued to learn. He appeared genuinely contrite after his public criticism of Ferrari over the radio in Singapore. In Russia, he was not shy in letting the team know he was unhappy, but didn't force it beyond insisting the matter be discussed more earnestly later. It smacked of a driver learning how to toe the line and play the game.

Ferrari must spot the way the wind is blowing. If it wants to tie Leclerc down longer-term, that will give Leclerc leverage and strengthen his position against Vettel even further. Leclerc
is showing no signs of letting that turn him into a Fernando Alonso-style power player, but he knows he is worthy of (at least) equal treatment.

"I'm definitely not the one who takes the decision for next year," says Leclerc. "But I have worked pretty well this season, I improved quite a lot, I understood completely the situation [at the beginning of the year] and I think I have been quick in some races. I have shown what I was capable of, and now I will leave it to Mattia and to the management to decide."

At the time of writing, a semi-resurgence from Vettel may yet prevent Leclerc ending the year as Ferrari's leading man in terms of points. Ferrari's progress has taken Leclerc to new heights, but it has also started to unlock some of the old Vettel by solving some of the car "trust" issues that have previously held him back. And if the developments of the 2019 Ferrari form the basis of '20's car, and that suits him better out of the blocks, Vettel could delay the inevitable. But it would take a brave person to bet on Leclerc failing to establish himself as the de facto number one.

That is why Leclerc's season has provided emphatic answers to those opening questions. How does an understudy oust the star? By shining brighter. When does the Beta know it is time to replace the Alpha? When he stands taller. What does a support act need to do to become the main attraction? Become the premium option.

How did Charles Leclerc displace Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari? By doing all of the above.

The 'alpha' bet

Ferrari and Mattia Binotto are taking the path less travelled. It's bumpy, long and difficult to navigate because there is no real map to follow. Taking two aggressive, selfish and ruthless winners and taming them to be compliant team players is borderline uncharted territory.

Team orders are part of F1. Whether you agree with such race manipulation or not, they are part of the fabric of a team sport and serve a purpose. But Binotto is taking it one step further: trying to craft an arrangement whereby two alpha drivers compete on equal terms, but for the good of Ferrari - under its control and prepared to sacrifice their own interests for the team. "You can always decide to let them race," Binotto recently admitted. "That would be the easier solution."

Binotto's task with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc is not same as Toto Wolff once had at Mercedes, or Christian Horner at Red Bull. Wolff knows the pain of the alpha bet. The scars of the Lewis Hamilton-Nico Rosberg rivalry might have healed on the surface but there's a soreness that still runs underneath. It might even be why Hamilton is forever at pains to point out how great his relationship is with Valtteri Bottas, who will never be number two by name but is exactly that in practice. At Red Bull, Max Verstappen has moved to the next level with Daniel Ricciardo gone. Max had it easy against Pierre Gasly, and is not being problematically challenged by Alex Albon either.

Binotto sees Ferrari's alpha bet as a gamble that can unlock a key strength as it bids to finally topple Mercedes: the strongest driver line-up among the leading teams and the compliance of those drivers to work together to obliterate the opposition, regardless of which one of them finishes first.

"What's important for them is to be animals, because that's the best way to be really aggressive and fast in the race weekend," says Binotto of Vettel and Leclerc. And key for Ferrari, according to Binotto, is to manage the potentially destructive effects of that animalistic tendency: "It's important for the team to be aware of that; try to prevent it."

Some believe Binotto's target to be optimistic at best, very naive at worst. If Ferrari gets it wrong the outcome will be defeat and that is something Ferrari cannot afford.