Charles Leclerc has had a tough time recently in F1, particularly due to poor strategy calls made by the Ferrari team.
Leclerc had a fairly positive start to the 2022 F1 season. After spending a decade in the shadows of Red Bull and Mercedes, Ferrari finally built a car that could challenge for the title. Three rounds into this campaign, Leclerc was 46 points clear of Max Verstappen in the standings.
However, Ferrari’s concerns soon shifted to it’s engine reliability. They built a fast car, but it seemed like they sacrificed durability in order to get speed. This led to two DNFs for the Monegasque driver, one in Baku and one in Barcelona. Even his teammate Carlos Sainz suffered similar issues.
When you thought you already had all the bad luck of the world in Monaco and you lose the brakes into rascasse with one of the most iconic historical Ferrari Formula 1 car. 🙃🔫
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) May 15, 2022
On top of that, Ferrari have made several strategic blunders and pit-stop errors which compromised Leclerc’s race. This happened at the Monaco GP, and it led to him giving up first position to finish P4. Now it seems that Ferrari and Leclerc’s hard luck has continued over the virtual world as well.
Ferrari put the wrong tyres in game for Charles Leclerc
Leclerc is an avid gamer and streams on Twitch very often. During a recent stream of the F1 22 game, he was taking part in an Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and it started raining mid race.
The real life Ferrari driver who was also using the F1-75 in game, decided to pit in for a different compound of tyres. However, he wanted his virtual mechanics to fit intermediate compound tyres whereas the fit the full wets.
This frustrated him once again, and he raged on stream as viewers watched, wondering how a game can get so accurate!
A tough break for Leclerc as his Baku hopes go up in smoke 😖#AzerbaijanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/LEYq3hVA8f
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 12, 2022
“It chose the wets,” he said in an exasperated tone. “That is definitely the worst strategy ever! No, it’s not a risk, it is just the worst idea.”
Leclerc was leading the Championship by 46 points. However, a mixture of bad luck, engine problems and poor strategy making now puts the 24-year old 49 points behind Verstappen. In fact, the Dutchman’s teammate Sergio Perez has now taken the P2 spot in the standings.
The F1 season continues at the iconic Silverstone circuit next weekend, with the British Grand Prix.
