Charles Leclerc clinches FIA F2 drivers' championship - F1 beckons

Ferrari junior driver Charles Leclerc has wrapped up the FIA F2 championship in Jerez, taking the title with his sixth race win of the season.

The Monagasque takes the title with a weekend to spare. The season finale will be in Abu Dhabi on the Grand Prix support programme.

Leclerc has been the class of the field this season, his march to the title and some of the race performances reminiscent of the campaign of Lewis Hamilton in 2006, when the series was known as GP2. Like Hamilton, Leclerc was in his first season in the category.

It has been tough too, with the death of his father after a long illness coming days before his race win in Baku in June.

"It feels amazing! We’ve had a great season overall, and on the performance side we have always been very, very quick," said Leclerc.

"Obviously I’ve had some lows during the season, a few on the racing side but most of all on the personal side obviously, after losing my father. Winning the championship is an amazing way for me to honour him, and actually I would like to dedicate this title for him."

Leclerc has a F1 programme of Friday morning FP1 running ahead with Sauber and is widely expected to race for the Swiss team next season, as part of a deal with Ferrari whereby the team will be able to use a contemporary Ferrari engine, rather than the year old units that are being used at present.

The new F2 champion is the latest driver of the roster of driver manager Nicolas Todt, who has Felipe Massa at Williams and who also masterminded Jules Bianchi's career. Bianchi and Leclerc were close, Bianchi's father overseeing Leclerc's early steps in karting in the south of France and Bianchi acting as his mechanic during his teenage years.

"Now I will call my manager because they didn’t want to tell me anything (about 2018 plans) before winning the championship. So I will call him to know a bit more now!" joked Leclerc.

JA on F1 did an exclusive interview with Leclerc in July at Silverstone. He is a thoughtful driver, highly skilled but also clearly very intelligent and he will be a great addition to the roster of young talent in F1 along with Verstappen and Ocon in particular.

Leclerc carried out a day's testing duties for Ferrari at the Hungaroring in early August, completing 98 laps and setting the fastest time of the day.

Britain's Oliver Rowland has also been a consistent performer, winning in Monaco and generally running second to Leclerc for much of the season.