“I can’t make these mistakes, it’s unacceptable. If at the end of the year we lose the championship by 32 points, the ones I lost between Imola and Le Castellet, I will know where this disadvantage comes from.” – With these comments Charles Leclerc expressed his regret after the spin that put him out of the French Grand Prix at the Paul Ricard circuit a few weeks ago.
An error that cost him 25 points given the fact that he was on his way to taking to the race win and instead Max Verstappen was able to ince again capitalize in the drivers’ standings by 32 points (considering the seven points scored on the occasion by Max Verstappen) in the context of the world championship battle with the Dutchman. Considering also the spin at Imola, we arrive at 39 points “attributable” to errors by the Monegasque driver. But giving shares of responsibility would be a wrong operation for several reasons: first of all, it does not change the ranking; secondly, Charles Leclerc lost even more points due to power unit failure and poor strategy decisions during the first part of the 2022 Formula One season. Except for the French Grand Prix, Charles made little or no mistakes. That’s why former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard advised him to stop making calculations and not criticize himself too much.
“I am not surprised at the ruthless approach that Charles Leclerc has taken upon himself after France. He has always been like that. I still remember when he hit the wall in Baku in 2019 and said on the radio: ‘I’m stupid, so stupid!’. But Charles is by no means a fool. He is a brilliant driver, and certainly very fast. He is maturing before our eyes in a high pressure environment like that of Ferrari” – the words of the former McLaren and Red Bull driver in an interview for Channel4 – “When you are at Ferrari you don’t just drive for a team, but you have an entire country on your side. Once Charles Leclerc will put behind these mistakes, he will show that he is worthy of being a world champion. The situation reminds me a little of that of Max Verstappen: he too made his mistakes in the first phase of his career.” – David Coulthard concluded.
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