Leclerc compared to ‘puppy peeing the carpet’ in strange F1 claim

Former F1 driver David Coulthard has likened Charles Leclerc to a “puppy occasionally peeing on the carpet” while assessing his driving abilities.

Leclerc has long been hailed for his rapid speed, accumulating 26 pole positions - the joint 12th most in F1 history - across his seven seasons in the sport.

The Monégasque, however, has been noted for making mistakes while pushing his car to the limit.

Lando Norris has also come under the spotlight this year for making errors, such as not having strong starts from pole position.

Speaking on the Formula For Success podcast, Coulthard believes F1 is heading into a “golden era” once the leading drivers find a way to eradicate their minor lapses.

"I think that Max [Verstappen] arrived as the finished article, just with a few rough edges, when he came to F1, where for others, it's taken a bit longer," said Coulthard.

“Charles, he's still like a puppy occasionally peeing on the carpet.

“But once they iron out all those little mistakes, I think we're going into a golden era of F1.”

Coulthard backs Norris to improve F1 form

Verstappen is on course to take his fourth F1 title, sitting 62 points ahead of Norris in the drivers' standings.

With Norris needing a dramatic swing in the final three rounds to secure his title, Coulthard has backed Norris to fine-tune his form in the coming years.

“Every driver takes each lights out as an opportunity,” he said. 

“I think outside of the car, he probably realises that he's going to take an element of the racing Gods intervening - a reliability issue, a crash and unfinished or something for Max.

“Max can wrap it up in Vegas, we'd all love to see it go down to the final in Abu Dhabi.

“They're both very gentle, normal people out of the race car. Their own racing personalities, of course, is in the car, and Max gets his elbows out, probably a bit more than Lando does.

“But this is all part of growing… what is Lando? 26 or 27 years old. 

“They're still boys in many ways. I felt it was about 30 when I kind of figured out what life was about, and that coincided with my best performance.”