Charles Leclerc had a lot of bad lucks this year due to which he finished seventh in the drivers’ standings this year, says Mattia Binotto.
Ferrari team boss believes that Charles Leclerc deserved a better finishing position in the drivers’ championship. Leclerc finished the season at the seventh position while his teammate ended at the fifth position, six points ahead of Leclerc.
To support his argument, Binotto pointed out two specific races which proved expensive for Leclerc. He named Monaco and Hungarian Grand Prix. Leclerc took pole position in Monaco after crashing on his final lap in Q3.
However, he failed to start the race as the team discovered that the overnight repairs to his car had not been successful. In Hungary, he was taken out on the first lap by Lance Stroll.
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Charles Leclerc has made positive progress
Binotto further explained that in this season there are a couple of other races, such as Budapest and Monaco, where he scored zero. But in those cases, Leclerc was unlucky as a driver in Binotto’s opinion.
“Without that, it is difficult to say where he would have finished at the end of the race, but maybe at least 40 points missing on his classification,” Binotto further added.
Without the loss of those 40 points, he would have ended a lot further ahead in this championship. An extra 40 points would have lifted Leclerc to fourth in the standings ahead of Sergio Perez.
“That’s why, again, I can only judge very positively his season,” said Binotto. “He has learned furthermore how to manage the tyres, how to manage the race situations and the race pace. So I’m quite pleased with the progress he made.”
Furthermore, Leclerc’s teammate who finished his first year with Scuderia Ferrari revealed that he was happy with his progress. However, he feels that Leclerc is still outperforming him in many aspects. He wants to try and match up to the Monegasque’s level when the F1 returns.
