Leclerc was "a bit too impatient" before Ferrari F1 move

Charles Leclerc says patience is the most important lesson he has learned from his first Formula 1 season driving for Ferrari, after admitting he was “a bit too impatient” before.

Having won back-to-back titles in GP3 and Formula 2, Leclerc graduated to Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement following an impressive debut F1 season with Sauber.

Leclerc enjoyed a stellar first campaign at Maranello, racking up two victories and seven pole positions across the 2019 season as he outperformed four-time world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel at the first attempt.

When asked what was the most important lesson he had learned during 2019 in a Ferrari fan Q&A, Leclerc replied: “I think patience. Patience is something which is very important and something which I struggled to have in the past.

“But I learnt with Ferrari you need it as obviously you can’t have everything right away. Sometimes you need a bit of patience to learn from the best, from Seb, and from the team and things take time to settle.

“You need to wait a little bit sometimes. I was a bit too impatient before.”

Leclerc, who was rewarded with a multi-year contract extension until 2024 over the winter, said he still finds it “hard to believe” that he is a Ferrari driver.

“It feels good, it feels really good,” he said. “Even if it is already a year since I started driving for Ferrari, I get a special feeling every time that I put on the red shirt.

“It is still hard to believe that I am here. It is an honour and I can’t wait to get back on track.”

And the 22-year-old Monegasque insisted he would not change anything from the past as he feels his previous mistakes have helped shaped him into the driver he is now.

“Surely I have made some errors over the course of my career but they have also made me the driver I am today, I learned from those errors,” Leclerc explained.

“So, no, I would not change anything just because it has shaped me into the person I am now.”