Ericsson hopes 'clean weekend' will put him on a par with Leclerc

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Marcus Ericsson believes a clean weekend, void of any painful misfortunes, should enable him to race on the same level as his impressive team mate Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque rookie's stock soared an extra point last weekend at Paul Ricard when he scored a top-ten finish for the fourth time in five races.

But Leclerc's results also highlight Ericsson's relative under-performance, although in France the Swede was set back by a fiery crash in FP1 that later deprived him of track time and useful preparation.

Hamilton and Vettel heap praise on impressive Leclerc

"I think the crash in FP1 hurt my weekend quite a lot," he said, after coming home P13 on Sunday.

"I bring quite a lot of positives anyway as in my qualifying was probably my best qualifying of the year with zero preparation almost. I think I had eight push laps going into the session.

"To put it into Q2 was really a good effort. In Q2 I was one tenth off Charles after the first run but on the second run I just did a mistake.

"Then the race, first part of the race I think maybe hurt me a bit I didn’t have many laps [experience], I was struggling a bit in the first stint.

"I didn’t really get the tyres to work after the Safety Car so I lost [Stoffel] Vandoorne and Brendon [Hartley] in the first stint."

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Ericsson however his holding on to his belief that he can match Leclerc, if he can put a trouble-free first few days under his belt. Hopefully that will happen as soon as next weekend in Austria.

"The biggest problem with the weekend was the crash in FP1 so that puts you on the backfoot and you’re always playing catch-up," he said.

"I think the changes we did prior to the weekend with set-up, system settings and stuff seemed to be in the right direction for me so I think we’ve learned some stuff there that we can bring with us to Spielberg.

"If we can have a clean weekend there without any crashes and other problems it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep up with Charles because he’s obviously extremely strong at the moment and doing a really good job with the car we have.

"With a clean weekend I hope I can be at the same level."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.