Formula 1 sporting chief Ross Brawn believes Charl💖es Leclerc’s arrival at Ferrari will provide the team with a b🐓oost and give teammate Sebastian Vettel “added incentive” in 2019.

Leclerc will gr💙aduate to Ferrari next season to partner four-timeꦡ world champion Vettel following an impressive rookie campaign with a revitalised Sauber squad.

The 21-year-o🌌ld Monegasque♋ turned in a number of strong displays on his way to scoring 39 of Sauber’s 48-point total in 2018, helping the Swiss outfit improve to eighth place in the constructors’ championship.

Leclerc made his first official outing as a Ferrari driver on Wednesday as he took over from Vettel and instantly beat his n♛ew teammate’s benchmark time by four-tenths of a second to end the♛ post-season Abu Dhabi test on top.

“Charles Leclerc has been truly impressive in terms of s💝peed and talent but now he has to make a significant step up,” Brawn said.

“I’m sure ꦰhis arrival at Ferrari will be a boost for the team and an added incentive for🐭 Vettel next year.”

‘New spirit’ key to Ferrari’s resurgence in 2018

While a number of high-profile errors and missed opportunities ultima🍎tely thwarted Ferrari’s 2018 campaign as it lost out on both world championships to Mercedes, Brawn, a key architect in the team’s dominance of the early 2000s, reckons the Scuderia benefitted from a change of approach this year.

“When one doesn’t win a world championship that had seemed very winnable, iꦅt’s inevitable that questions are asked in order to understand what went wrong,” he explained.

“When the team ꦫin question is Ferrari, then the question is not just asked at the top but it becomes almost a national question in Italy, as I was able to♋ see for myself during my decade in Maranello.


“Ferrari is condemned for finishing second in both championships, as it’s simply not good enough at home. And yet, there can be cause for satisfaction in Maranello, because over two years the team has managed to close a performance gap t💯o Mercedes that in 2🍬016 amounted to a second a lap.

“The shake up of the technical management instigated by Sergio Marchionne bore fruit this year,” Brawn added. “I thin🦄k most importantly it resulted in a new approach to the way th🌄e team operated and that gave the team a new spirit.

“It’s been a decade since Ferrari has been capable of winning six grands prix and of starting from pole six times.

“Sebastian Vettel was a worthy opponent for Lewis⛎ Hamilton but unlike the Englishman the German failed to win all of theꦛ races he should have, nor could he win when he wasn’t favourite to do so.”