Charles Leclerc expects he will benefit in 2020 from not changing teams between seasons for the first time in his career.

The 22-year-old is starting his second season at Ferrari. It is the first time since he graduated to single-seaters six years ago that he has remained at the same team from one year to the next.

“It’s been a very long time since the last time I was two years in a row in the same team,” said Leclerc, who hopes that stability will pay off and allow him to help the team tackle the problems they experienced last year.

“I’ve made it clear what I want from the car,” he said. “But the job of the team and the goal of everyone is the same at the end: To try to do the most solid car with the most flexibility in terms of set-up to help in both directions.

“Because it’s not the same issue that we have in every track. We need to be adapting the car to every track and this is a goal for both drivers. And then when they are small balance issues which can happen then it’s up to us to adapt to the car too.”

Leclerc says he “didn’t really know what to expect” at the start of his first season with Ferrari 12 months ago and he’s “learned a lot” since then.

“I think there were a few mistakes last year,” he said. “Probably the biggest one, like in Baku to crash in Q2, was just very unnecessary and I think I’ve learned the lesson.

“Overall during the year I think I’ve learned many smaller lessons, probably, but very useful ones on the strategy and the races. It’s quite a lot more complex in Formula 1. And on this I’ve still got a lot of improvements to make and I’m working with the team on that, so I’m pretty sure there’s room for improvement everywhere.

“If I have to choose one thing at the moment it is probably on my side to try and have a better vision of the race. I’m pretty sure this will be useful for the future.”

After winning two races last year, Leclerc was handed a long-term contract extension with Ferrari.

“Obviously it’s great to be knowing that I’ll be driving for Ferrari for five more years,” he said. “This is great, obviously it gives me confidence.

“This doesn’t mean the races don’t count so we’ll have to be working very hard. I don’t think it gives us any certainty on the results but one thing’s for sure is that it’s a long term project and I think it’s interesting for both myself and the team to be working in such a long contract and to build a strong relationship which hopefully will bring many successes.”

Leclerc’s single-seater career so far

Year Championship Team 2014 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup & ALPS Fortec 2015 Formula Three Van Amersfoort 2016 GP3 ART 2017 Formula 2 Prema 2018 Formula 1 Sauber 2019 Formula 1 Ferrari 2020 Formula 1 Ferrari

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2020 F1 season