Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc replied with a simple “no” when asked whether he had lost confidence in the Maranello team after the 2022 British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit. Inevitably, Charles was extremely disappointed at the end of the race after losing yet another victory, this time due to a strategy call that proved the wrong one, but, in front of the media, the Monegasque kept his comments and his criticism close to his chest.
Charles Leclerc did admit that he had “lost a lot of time” in the first part of the Silverstone event after being stuck behind his Maranello team-mate Carlos Sainz as Ferrari initially asked the Spanish driver to try and set better lap times rather than letting Charles get past him. Still, things were going well for Charles until a late Safety car meant Ferrari had to make a fast decision whether to call him to the box for a tyre change. However, only Carlos Sainz was pitted by the Italian side as Ferrari made what he said at the time “wasn’t the right decision” to let him out on old hard tyres.
Given the fact that Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez both pitted for new soft tyres, Charles Leclerc had no chance after the race restart and was overtaken by Carlos Sainz and the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers, despite his strong opposition.
The fourth place finish means Charles Leclerc recovered just a few points against Max Verstappen in the title race on a day when Ferrari had a great opportunity to significantly reduce the gap given the issues encountered by the Dutchman, who finished in P7. After a positive start to the 2022 Formula 1 season, Charles Leclerc has not won a race since the third round, in Australia, and he has not been on the podium since the Miami Grand Prix back in May.
“It’s not good.” – he admitted when asked to comment on his run of set-backs, “but I have to say that I feel like I’m showing that every race it’s not affecting me too much. But I would rather not have these problems.” – he added.
During the last five events, the Monegasque driver has suffered two retirements due to power unit failures, lost a certain win in Monaco due to another bad strategy decision by Ferrari, finished fifth in Montreal after having to start from the back of the grid due to penalties and now fourth in the British Grand Prix, which can be considered another huge opportunity wasted for Ferrari:
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“It’s costing a lot of points,” Charles Leclerc said, “but…”
He didn’t expand on the but. However, asked if he was losing confidence in the Maranello team, he immediately answered: “No.”
At the same time, Charles wants to make a full review of everything that happened last Sunday at Silverstone: “I want to discuss it and have the full view with the team what the reason was. Obviously I felt personally I was very strong in the first part of the race and that I lost a little bit of time – whether it would have changed the end result, I don’t think it would, but just for the future we need to check everything.” – he concluded.
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