The manager of Max Verstappen thinks it’s only a matter of time before Charles Leclerc eventually becomes champion even though his driver successfully overpowered his challenge for the 2022 World Championship.
Verstappen won the wet Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, securing the championship with his 12th victory in 18 races while Leclerc received a five-second time penalty for cutting the track at the last corner of the final lap of the race which was shortened by the rain.
Verstappen won the title at Suzuka as a result of this, along with a rule oddity that awarded all points to him, leaving Leclerc to lament Ferrari’s lack of pace and the lost championship.
However, according to Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen, the Monegasque Ferrari driver is a potential champion and just as good as Max. He attributed many of Ferrari’s problems in 2022 to the car, and he thinks spins, like Leclerc’s retirement off the lead in the French Grand Prix, were caused by this.
In a conversation with the F1 Nation podcast, Vermeulen said: “A lot of the mistakes that happened to both Ferrari drivers was because they seem to have quite a loose rear, that’s a little bit unpredictable,”
“And then obviously, if you’re already a little bit on the backfoot, you push that just extra couple of percent more, and you’re driving closer at the limit, then it’s obviously easy to make a mistake.
“It’s easy to finger point, but I think if he has the right package, Charles is definitely also a future Formula 1 World Champion, if he has the car that he requires to do [so.]”
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Additionally, Vermeulen thinks that his driver and his former karting adversary are “equal talents,” with just the RB18 and F1-75 serving as the difference between both parties in their challenge for the World Championship.
He added: “I think Charles is equally talented. I mean that some of his pole position laps that he put together this year were just unbelievable,”
“I also think he has the race craft, but if you have bigger tyre degradation during the race, there’s not much that you can do as a driver.
“You can be like Sergio Perez who is one of the best in saving rear tyres, but I think they are all pretty good in that sense.
“Ultimately, you need a car that performs over one and a half hours, and Charles didn’t have this for most of the races.”
