Charles Leclerc defends wheel-to-wheel conduct after Ross Brawn criticism. Charles defends wheel-to-wheel conduct.

Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has defended his wheel-to-wheel racing methods after Formula One managing director, motor sports and technical director Ross Brawn’s comments at the end of the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, explaining that his “obviously on the limit” approach in the midfield generally pays off.

The Monegasque driver recovered from 18th to finish seventh at the Red Bull Ring last weekend, after having to make an early pit stop due to an incident with Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri on lap one. On the one side Ross Brawn praised his performance, but said the fact the comeback charge was only necessary because of Charles Leclerc’s own initial error negated it somewhat.

And he suggested such mistakes were a symptom of Charles being too impatient to get out of the midfield and back to where he felt he should be.

“He has got to keep his wits about him when he’s in the lower positions. It is a lot busier,” said Ross Brawn in his post-race column for F1, in which he added that Michael Schumacher often made similar errors when in the midfield. Given he knows how strong he is, a moderately conservative approach needs to be considered. The tricky bit is if you’re too conservative, you get into accidents as well. It’s pretty ferocious there in the pack. So it’s finding that balance. I suspect there is a touch of ‘I should be at the front – I want to get back up the front as quick as I can’ mentality.” – the former Ferrari boss added.

When Ross Brawn’s comments were put to Charles Leclerc on Thursday ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, he explained that in the end the same mindset that prompted the clash with Gasly also allowed him to make up so much ground afterwards: “For my wheel to wheel racing, I am actually quite satisfied with it. It’s always obviously on the limit. But if you look at the last race it helped us massively to come back through the field without losing too much pace. So it’s always a fine balance. There’s maybe something I could have done to have avoided it. But now it’s too late. It was a bit too much in the first lap but I spoke with Pierre, everything is fine there and that’s it.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded.