Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen have shared 2 wins each at the start of the season. In the first 4 races, the duo has raced each other wheel to wheel 3 times to fight for the win. But there is a different turn to this rivalry and championship as compared to last season when Verstappen went toe-to-toe with Hamilton.

Former world champion Jenson Button revealed the main reason behind the different mood in the championship in 2022. The 2009 world champion mentioned Leclerc handles the pressure from Verstappen better than Lewis.

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The quality of racing between the 2 has been astonishing at the start of the season. But their rivalry has not yet turned sour as it did for Lewis and Max last season.

F1 champion Charles Leclerc handles the pressure from Max Verstappen better than Lewis

Jenson praised the world champion for his car control and reveals his skills are like no other on the grid. He mentioned he was very impressed with how quickly the Red Bull driver adjusts to a car with a bad balance. But he revealed the real reason Max’s battle against Charles feels different from Lewis in 2021.

“It’s great that they are fighting for the title. They have known each other for years, they have been opponents in karts and have had several crashes and accidents in those years,” Jenson told Total-Motorsport.

“Precisely for this reason I believe that Charles knows Max much more than Hamilton did. So I am not surprised that Leclerc is very calm (despite the fact that he went to the wall at the Variante Alta, ed), while Max is giving 100%,” said Button.

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It is certainly a very interesting analysis done by the former McLaren driver. It got ugly between Lewis and Max at the end of the 2021 season with their battles going into overdrive. But there is no sense of this season’s rivalry between Max and Charles going the same way as last year.

But all it takes is a crash between the drivers on the track that might escalate the whole situation. Hopefully, if that crash happens, both drivers can continue to have the same respect that they have shown at the start of the season.