Charles Leclerc will be less "accommodating" than Kimi Raikkonen was to Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, Ross Brawn has predicted.
The Monegasque is tipped to make a big impact when he steps up to the Scuderia next season with the expectation being he will eventually lead the team into the next generation.
However, Formula 1's motorsport director does admit Leclerc will need to prove himself against his new teammate.
“Leclerc has been pretty impressive but he’s not had a tough reference yet and that will come in 2019," Brawn told Formula1.com.
“Being at Ferrari brings enormous pressure and he’ll have the pressure of racing against a world champion, a multi-world champion, so he’s going to have a pretty challenging year.
“But, from what I have seen so far, I expect him to do a very respectable job.”
As part of trying to assert his position at Ferrari, however, the former technical chief at Maranello believes Vettel can't expect as many favours from across the garage.
“I don’t imagine Charles Leclerc is going to be quite as accommodating as Kimi was on occasions,” Brawn continued.
“Kimi is his own man, don’t get me wrong, but I think Kimi knew what the lay of the land was in the team.”
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In the long-term, however, the Briton does think the 21-year-old will join Max Verstappen as one of the top names on the grid.
"We have lost Fernando Alonso, but we have Leclerc being put into Ferrari, Gasly in at Red Bull, and George Russell, Lando Norris and Alexander Albon stepping up," he noted.
"I think Leclerc is probably at the head of that generation.”
