Charles Leclerc believes the current performance of the Sauber car is a good omen for 2019 given development ended several months ago.
The Monegasque has four top 10 finishes to his name in the past six races, two of which have seen him comfortably run ‘best of the rest’ in seventh including last time out in Brazil.
Certainly, it is a testament to the incredible turnaround at the Swiss team this season, who sit just a point short of matching their same points total this year and the previous four combined, and is admittedly even surprising those at Hinwil.
“I don’t think we expected to have such a good end of the season, [with] the end of the development programme for this year’s car so early,” Leclerc was quoted by PlanetF1.
“So it’s definitely looking good for them for next year, because they’ve had quite a bit of time to develop the car.”
The 21-year-old won’t be there to see just how much progress Sauber make as he is heading to Ferrari but with Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi there is no doubting, they are a team to watch.
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As for this weekend’s finale in Abu Dhabi, there is a little bit of stick and twist at play in the Constructors’ Championship with a six-point gap to Force India in seventh and a nine-point lead over Toro Rosso in ninth.
“We’re obviously not going to take stupid risks to gain one position if they [Toro Rosso] are behind,” Leclerc admitted. “That’s for sure going to change a little bit our approach.
“But the goal remains the same, to do the best job possible every week, and to obviously keep them behind.
“We will change a little bit in some situations.”