The 30-year-old parallels Ferrari faces in modern F1

Considering the opening five races of the 2023 season, Ferrari’s current Formula 1 duo have endured largely different fortunes. On one hand, we have a rapid but wayward Charles Leclerc, who has excelled and frustrated in equal measure while driving on the ragged edge. On the other, we have Carlos Sainz, who has trailed his team-mate in terms of raw pace but has been an altogether more consistent presence behind the wheel.

It’s a duo that has been selected on their prodigious talent as Ferrari hopes to end its championship drought, which spans back to its constructors’ and drivers' double success in 2007, and was considered one of the strongest line-ups on the grid when the two were first put together for the 2021 season. But this season has exposed a couple of weaknesses, namely Sainz’s inability to consistently match Leclerc in qualifying, while Leclerc has got into the habit of overdriving – leading to his brace of Turn 7 mistakes in Miami.

Ferrari’s Jock Clear, who is officially listed as a driver coach at Ferrari among other roles, suggested that Leclerc “got a bit ahead of himself” in Miami in the Monegasque’s bid to try and secure a second consecutive pole position, following his start from first a week prior in Baku.

“I think in some ways, this maybe is a reflection of his mindset, when he is up against a car that is demonstrably quicker than him. It's a sort of 'I'm just going to have to make the difference myself' which, of course, physics ultimately catches you out,” said Clear.

“And we're not going to say to him 'Look, calm down, Charles' because over the course of a year, his qualifying is outstanding. And that puts him in a very strong position for a lot of races, as it did last weekend, clearly. But yeah, the car's been relatively quite nice here; it's not been a car they had real struggles with this weekend. And I think he smelled the opportunity for another pole position, to be honest, and maybe just got a bit ahead of himself.”

It’s almost reminiscent of the situation Ferrari found itself in 30 years ago, having been among a similarly long wait for title glory. It had been competitive and in the hunt for titles when Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost were on board at the turn of the 1990s, but stronger opposition contrived to ensure the drought continued. By 1992, the team had fallen off completely thanks to a glacially slow F92A, and it was up to Jean Todt to steady the ship as team principal.

The driving line-up was already in place when Todt came in, and in Jean Alesi the team had a rapid but wayward racer who had excelled and frustrated in equal measure. In the other car, Gerhard Berger arguably trailed his team-mate in terms of raw pace, but had been an altogether more consistent presence behind the wheel. There will be no apology for the device of narrative repetition that has been clumsily employed to draw parallels between the 1993-1995 drivers and the current pairing today.

There are parallels at Ferrari between the 1993-95 drivers and the current pairing today

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Perhaps it's disingenuous to label Alesi as a proto-Leclerc, but there’s certainly stylistic overlap between the two. During his pomp, Alesi was a guns-blazing racer, and capable of maddening genius; many remember his superhuman drive at the Nurburgring in 1995, dancing on a wet circuit with dry tyres.

Only tyre wear and Michael Schumacher’s determination denied him a follow-up victory that day, having broken his duck weeks before at the Canadian Grand Prix. He’d come close many times in 1995 to more wins as Ferrari proved to be a much more competitive force; Schumacher even reckoned that the 412 T2 was a “very, very good car”, the implication probably being that he’d have fancied himself to challenge for the title in the V12-powered machinery.

Read more: The first story of Schumacher at Ferrari

Leclerc is a much more refined driver; he’s not as clinical as perhaps Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton but, when the conditions are right, can extract phenomenal performances from a car on-demand. Note his Azerbaijan 2023 qualifying laps, where he knew the exact limitations of the Ferrari in every corner and was able to glide between the walls with apparent and consummate ease.

Clear’s assertion that Leclerc was perhaps taken in by the glory of taking a second consecutive pole in Miami to stick it to the Red Bulls does unveil an underlying frustration; Alesi and Leclerc both share the tendency to overdrive in that situation, resembling something akin to a boxing match with their respective steering wheels.

Leclerc was admittedly unlucky with reliability in Bahrain, but the remaining races have either been error-prone or exercises in overstretching with the limitations that the Ferrari has on tyres

Where Alesi would perhaps respond in a more explosive manner to moments of underperformance, Leclerc tends to internalise his anger – but the ‘exothermic and endothermic reactions’ could be considered at a similar magnitude.

In truth, the Sainz/Berger comparison is perhaps slightly more spurious: a slightly more experienced driver who misses a couple of tenths compared to their more prodigious team-mate, sometimes mistake-prone, but generally a consistent presence in the second car.

Berger was at a slightly different stage in his career; after playing back-up to Nigel Mansell at Ferrari and Ayrton Senna at McLaren, Berger was done playing second-fiddle and occupied equal status with Alesi on his return to the Scuderia. Sainz has rarely played that role, instead spending his formative years leading midfield teams before earning the move of a lifetime to Ferrari to replace Sebastian Vettel.

The Sainz/Berger comparison is perhaps slightly more spurious but there are stylistic similarities

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But again, there are stylistic similarities, and they’re less likely to go on the all-out offensive compared to their team-mates. Berger and Sainz pursue a more cerebral approach to getting the best out of the car, although the difference was starker in the Berger/Alesi partnership, as the latter simply wanted a pointy front end and left the more technical details to his team-mate. Leclerc is certainly more involved in that side than Alesi ever was, but still relies on feel more than Sainz perhaps does.

Why the comparison between today’s line-up and that of 30 years ago, then? Aside from the similarities, there is a slight undercurrent of underperformance that remains present in both. There are mitigating factors: the 1993 and 1994 Ferraris were not good enough for Berger and Alesi to challenge the Williams, McLaren, and Benetton cars of the time, and this year’s Ferrari is not good enough to take the fight to Red Bull in the races.

"What we are lacking is consistency from the car,” Leclerc reckoned after Miami. “The car is, not even from corner to corner, it is just in the same corner I can have a huge oversteery balance and then a huge understeery balance and our car is so wind-affected, other than that, for some reason this is off because it is not something I have had for the rest of the weekend.”

But on pace, the car is capable of much more. Leclerc was admittedly unlucky with reliability in Bahrain, but the remaining races have either been error-prone or exercises in overstretching with the limitations that the Ferrari has on tyres. Equally, when Alesi and Berger had a car that could win races in 1995, opportunities went begging – hence Schumacher’s comments the first time he tested the car ahead of his 1996 move to the Maranello squad.

When Todt joined Ferrari in 1993, the Alesi-Berger partnership spanned three years until the two were dropped for Schumacher and Eddie Irvine as the overhaul began. 30 years later, ex-Alfa Romeo chief Frederic Vasseur has taken charge, and is conducting his own assessments with the team as he hopes to ignite a renaissance at the Prancing Horse. How long, then, can he put up with driver and team underperformance – and what options would be available if Leclerc and Sainz cannot deliver on their potential.

Extrapolating from the 1996 overhaul, the Schumacher cypher at this stage would be surely be Max Verstappen. But if Vasseur a) stays in the job for more than the next three years and b) wants to jettison his driving line-up for 2026, Verstappen remains off the table until at least 2028. A big money fee would surely not be enough for Red Bull to let the Dutchman go free, unless the team’s performance drops off considerably over the next few years.

Like the current car, there’s not much apparent leeway for Ferrari to enact a change of that magnitude. Rather than reaching for a ready-baked world champion, it needs to challenge with one of its own – and Leclerc has far more potential to do that than Alesi did. At the current moment, however, Leclerc appears to have regressed slightly amid the frustration of a difficult car, and no amount of overdriving will compensate for that.

The wild streak of late must be tamed; Leclerc found the limit in Baku to set a time good enough for pole, but then went over it in sprint qualifying and earned a one-way trip to the wall. He and Ferrari must recognise that and mentally put a stake in the ground, else his extreme levels of talent will unfortunately go begging. Ferrari’s journey over a quarter of a century ago amid a similarly inconsistent era should offer lessons to the Scuderia of today.

Ferrari needs to challenge with one of its own – and Leclerc has far more potential to do that than Alesi did

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