Ericsson believes Leclerc success reflects well on him, too

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Marcus Ericsson says that the acclaim for Charles Leclerc's maiden season at Sauber has also done his own standing in Formula 1 some good as well.

Leclerc has been promoted to the Ferrari team after just one season in Formula 1. He's currently 15th in the drivers championship having won 15 points with the Swiss squad over six races.

Ericsson has also finished in the top ten in multiple races, and has six points from four different events in 2018. He actually performed better than his team mate in recent races leading up to Singapore.

“I feel that I stepped it up the last five or six weekends," the Swede said this week. “I scored more points than Charles, and Charles has signed a contract with Ferrari for a few years

"I think that says quite a bit," he added. "If I can keep doing that, or even better, that's what I need to do."

While his team mate's medium-term future is secure, Ericsson's own prospects remain up in the air.

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Although his personal sponsors are part of the investment group that saved Sauber from financial problems in 2017, his spot at Hinwil is by no means assured.

According to reports, it's title sponsor Alfa Romeo that will have first choice on who will partner Kimi Raikkonen at the team next year.

“The competition for the seats is a lot higher than it's been the last few years," admitted Ericsson. "I think the signing of Kimi really shows that.

“Now there's only one seat left for next year so I need to really impress and work hard to show that I should really be in the team.

"The pressure is high, but I like that.

“They haven't really given me any specifics or a timeframe for it, but I know I need to perform now," he added. "If that's enough for a contract or not, that's not up to me. But I need to keep pushing and trying to impress.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.