Ferrari ambassador Marc Gene says that Charles Leclerc is a whole new driver in 2022 having evolved in terms of both “mindset and mentality” heading into the 2022 Formula 1 world championship.
Gene is a veteran of 33 Grand Prix starts with Minardi in 1999 and 2000, and three further outings with Williams in 2003 and 2004 before become a mainstay of the Ferrari test driver line-up from 2004 and 2010.
Gene still has deep links with Ferrari and has been watching Leclerc's progress as a driver. The Monegasque arrived at Maranello in 2018 after a rookie season at Sauber, and currently leads the championship with 45 points from two races.
"He used to be very emotional and this year he has changed a lot," Gene told the F1 Nation podcast. "Charles is like a 2.0 version of himself.
"When I went to Barcelona for the private testing, we spent a lot of time together," he explained. "He was completely changed in his mindset and his mentality, and you can see it."
Gene said this new maturity had been shown by Leclerc's low-key reaction to success in Bahrain where he won pole position for the season opener and went on to win the race the following day.
"I was expecting Charles to be more over the moon after qualifying, after the pole, and the race," Gene said. "But he seemed so much more mature and aware that this is a very long championship."
Gene added that in his view, Leclerc was benefitting from a new sense of calmness and serenity at the Italian squad, thanks in no small part to team principal Mattia Binotto and fellow driver Carlos Sainz.
"The three main characters of this team - which are the two drivers and the team principal, - they are not emotional," he pointed out. "Mattia is half Swiss, [and the same sense of calm] you can see with Carlos, it comes from his father.
“I think Mattia, Charles and Carlos are going to be very important in keeping these emotions that we Italians, we tend to have," he suggested. "I leave that to the Tifosi!"
Keeping emotions and expectations in check are crucial to the team achieving its success of knocking Mercedes and Red Bull off the top step of Formula 1. The last time Ferrari claimed the constructors title was 2008 when Kimi Raikkonen pipped Felipe Massa to the drivers' crown.
“I always say you learn more from the bad years than from the good years," gene said. "Now that we have a good car, I think we are ready for a new era because it is the same people that suffered so much.”
But he admitted that whether this could herald the start of a sustained domination at the top of F1 like that recently enjoyed by Red Bull and Mercedes is another matter.
"Cycles cannot be beyond the one that Mercedes has had any longer, that is the longest probably that we will see in F1 history," Gene commented. "But definitely this group of people are ready to open a new era."
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