Avoiding Ferrari’s Misery in F1, Charles Leclerc Wins His First Race of 2023

Charles Leclerc has had a very underwhelming start to the 2023 season, with just one podium finish in the opening five races. After experiencing early highs in 2022 that pointed towards a potential title charge, his dreams came crashing down after Max Verstappen and Red Bull began their dominance.

The 2023 has been even worse for Leclerc, and he currently sits at P7 in the standings after five races. However, the Monegasque driver has something to cheer about finally, at least away from the F1 track. Leclerc’s friend and personal photographer Joris Trouche, posted a video on Instagram capturing Leclerc’s first race win of 2023.

first p1 of the season, let’s goooo pic.twitter.com/22hEOHbX8p

— clara (@leclercsletters) May 12, 2023

The win of course, wasn’t in F1, as we are currently in the middle of a break. Instead, the 25-year-old chose to go karting with his friends, in which we crossed the chequered flag first. The video became viral, with Leclerc’s fans sharing it all over social media, including Clara. 

Charles Leclerc will be hoping for replication of karting win in F1

Charles Leclerc, who currently sits P7 in the world championship, is desperate to get to the front of the grid once again. Ferrari’s pace this year has taken a drastic turn for the worse, with both Mercedes and Aston Martin jumping them in terms of race performance over the winter break.

Over one-lap pace, the SF-23 is showing good pace, as displayed by Leclerc’s pole in Baku and Sainz’s P3 at the Miami GP qualifying. Both drivers, however, are failing to replicate the same in the race, which shows that they are struggling in the long run.

We’ve got so much work to do in terms of race pace. We’ll keep pushing as always.
Next stop is in Imola ❤️ pic.twitter.com/u4Q4HP1dpa

— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) May 7, 2023

With upgrades set to come in, Leclerc will be hoping for a much better performance from the entire team in Imola, as they look to close the gap to the teams in front of them.

Leclerc and Sainz blamed for Ferrari’s shortcomings

The overwhelming public opinion regarding Ferrari’s crisis at the moment is that the Scuderia have built a slow car, which is affecting Leclerc and Sainz’s chances of finishing on the podium and winning races. However, former Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher’s brother Ralf feels that Leclerc and Sainz are to blame for this mess.

According to the German, new boss Frederic Vasseur has shown that things in Ferrari are changing for the better, but Leclerc and Sainz’s decision making and inconsistency is costing them. He wrote a column on Sky Sports Germany, where he launched a scathing attack on the Ferrari duo.

Leclerc has been blamed for not listening to his team engineers, whereas Sainz has simply been called out for not being as fast as Leclerc. Schumacher feels that in order to succeed, the drivers first need to change themselves.