Italian media warns Ferrari risk losing Charles Leclerc: "Patience has a limit"

The last Sunday before the summer break was one to forget for Scuderia Ferrari. The ambitious goal invoked by Team Principal Mattia Binotto and strategy director Iñaki Rueda ahead of the Budapest weekend was a one-two finish for the Maranello team. Instead, Ferrari left with broken bones from the Hungaroring, suffering yet another defeat gained in circumstances that should have been favourable for them. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were expected to recover points over championship leader Max Verstappen given the Hungaroring track characteristics.

Instead, due to a reckless strategy applied in particular to the Monegasque driver, the two F1-75 cars lost other precious points against the reigning world champion. The race for the two titles, Drivers and Constructors, now seems to be definitively over.

What worries the Ferrari fans and the media is also the relationship between Charles Leclerc and the top management of the Maranello team. In fact, many feel that the patience of the Monegasque talent is gradually fading and it is difficult not to consider it justifiable. After so many seasons marked by cars not up to par, the current year saw Ferrari develop a car that was finally fast, but also fell with exaggerated frequency into the abyss of wrong strategies. A problem, the latter, which has almost always affected Charles Leclerc himself, as was the case in Monaco and at the Silverstone circuit, where he lost the race wins after being in the lead, while Carlos Sainz finished in second place on the streets of Monte Carlo and won the British Grand Prix.

The Monegasque’s contract with Scuderia Ferrari expires at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season, but certainly in the coming months the Ferrari driver could think a lot about his future. Gianluca Gasparini, in the Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, underlined the danger that Maranello could face due to the many mistakes:

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“[…] If Monte Carlo and Silverstone weren’t enough, we now have the tactical contortion produced Sunday at the Hungaroring. […] The fact is that, throughout the season, Ferrari has fluctuated between very conservative behavior […] and crazy choices that have penalized its main driver. And the contrast with the surgical work of direct rivals is increasingly striking. […]. And, finally, there is the (delicate) Charles Leclerc question. Every time the red team’s pit wall has made the wrong tactical decision […] it was done it to his detriment. […] Charles is not Job: patience has a limit, and the driver’s confidence in those behind him risks becoming more and more unstable. It would be a big problem. […]. May the summer break bring advice, please”.