Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is happy with how the season played but feels there is too much talk about his mistakes.
Charles Leclerc had a 46-point lead over Max Verstappen ahead of the 2022 Imola GP. The strong start by the Monegasque seemed like he could deliver Ferrari’s first Driver’s title in 15 years.
But Max Verstappen denied the Italians the chance to celebrate. He would ramp 11 race wins in the coming races and claim the title with 4 races to spare.
For Leclerc, it seems like a story of repair. The Monegasque was riddled with many errors. Ferrari’s strategic errors and Leclerc’s crashes in France and Imola have been talked about the most.
It also seemed like Ferrari F1-75 wasn’t as fast as the RB18. And also caused a lot of tyre wear, causing issues for both drivers. But Leclerc feels there is too much spotlight on Ferrari.
Leclerc believes the French GP and Imola GP errors were just consequences of pushing the car to its limits. He said, “I don’t think when I did the mistakes, I had to compensate for anything.”
He added, “It was just obviously motivation to do in Imola, and then in France, yes, I did the mistake. But I think that could have happened anywhere in the season. I cannot change it.”
Charles Leclerc admits being greedy in France and Imola
Charles Leclerc did enjoy a rollercoaster season. But the Monegasque feels there is too much focus on what went wrong in the 2022 campaign.
He said, “I feel like it is being talked about much more than it should be. Obviously, looking at the points gap, it is huge and there have been consecutive points losses and at one point, everything we were doing was under the spotlights.”
But the Monegasque admits that it was his greed that cost him an easy win in France. “I was probably too greedy in France when there was no need to be greedy at that moment of the race.”
Charles had qualified on Pole and was leading the race. But on lap 18, the Moengaue lost control of his car, spun and hit the barriers. Max Verstappen was 20 seconds behind and inherited a 63-point lead after the race win.
Leclerc adds, “Maybe also in Imola when the best I could be just staying in my position and I thought about doing better.” Leclerc spun after a failed overtaking move on Sergio Perez, losing podium places as a result.
Also Read: Charles Leclerc realised championship slipped from his hands after Belgian GP
Charles Leclerc happy with the season
Charles Leclerc feels contended with how the season eventually played out. This was the first time Charles was in an F1 title race and believes it will help him learn and grow as a driver.
Leclerc says, “From a driver’s point of view, it has given me many more things that probably you don’t see from the outside.” He admits there are improvements the team have to make, but they will be better for the next season’s challenge.
Leclerc adds, “As a driver, you always try to work on the small details, not weaknesses. But every time you race, you learn from it. You try to bring it forward and be a better driver.”
Leclerc feels there is a major gap between his qualifying and race-day performance. And the records prove this statistic too.
Leclerc has claimed the same career poles as Verstappen – 18. But when compared with race wins, Max leads with 32 race wins, while Leclerc has only 5 to his name. Something he needs to fix in order to become a Championship winning driver.
