In their latest article on F1 driver movements ‘Why it could still go wrong for Leclerc and Gasly, Autosport.com examine whether current Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team’s Charles Leclerc have what it takes to survive the intense pressure and demands of their new 2019 teams.
Gasly is heading to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Leclerc to Scuderia Ferrari. As Autosport.com says,
‘Next year Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly will go from teams where points finishes are a success to teams where anything less than the title is failure. Are they really ready for it?’
The article goes on to examine both drivers and the new team environments that they face and the history of both successful and failed drivers that have gone before them.
It concludes:
“The pressures on them won’t be different in form next year, just in strength. Everyone has their breaking point, but the best in elite sport never, or at least very rarely, get to theirs. That’s the test these two drivers will face, and most likely revel in, in 2019. Chances are they will succeed, but it could yet go wrong for them.
Next year it will be time to pass the final exam and demonstrate, above all, that they have the mental strength to be true top guns.’
With this in mind, Red Bull Junior Team member and FIA Formula 3 European Championship title contender Daniel Ticktum has been back in the news for questioning the recent performance of title rivals Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman. Ticktum has been touted in the media for some time as an option for a vacant Formula One seat at Toro Rosso seat in 2019. He not only needs to win the F3 championship but also gain a FIA dispensation in order to gain enough Super Licence points to be able to compete in F1.
In 2015, 16 year-old Ticktum was given a two-year racing ban by the UK governing body Motor Sports Association for what it deemed “a disturbing and dangerous episode”. Ticktum overtook 10 competitors under safety car conditions to catch and crash into MSA Formula championship rival Ricky Collard at the Silverstone round. The second year was suspended for 12 months “on the condition there are no further offences”.
Ticktum currently sits second behind Schumacher who has won five of the last six races in the F3 European Championship with just one round left in the season. After the last weekend in Austria, he has slipped to 49 points behind with Kiwi Marcus Armstrong 20 points further back in third overall.
Ticktum is clearly frustrated and took to Instagram raising doubts over Schumacher’s massive improvement in form, saying it was ‘interesting’.
While the Instagram post has now been deleted, Ticktum is reported to have said, “I don’t like pointing fingers at anyone but to be honest, this weekend the pace in the car was not there. Set up mainly, as in the last race when we got the car better, we were pretty quick climbing from 7th to 4th.
“However compared to the top 2 no one on this grid had a chance. Even their other team mates who are good drivers were nowhere compared to them. Interesting is how I would describe their pace and I am confident many people in the f3 paddock will agree.”
Unfortunately this adds to Ticktum’s history and brings into question his mental ability under pressure and whether he can make the right choices. And this is outside the Formula One environment.
As Autosport.com says, ‘Everyone has their breaking point, but the best in elite sport never, or at least very rarely, get to theirs.’
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