Jacques Villeneuve believes 'Ferrari's mistakes increased the pressure on Charles Leclerc'

Jacques Villeneuve believes ‘Ferrari’s mistakes increased the pressure on Charles Leclerc’. Jacques Villeneuve looks back on Ferrari's mistakes this season.

By winning a Japanese Grand Prix which took place in extreme weather conditions, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was crowned world champion for the second consecutive time. A deserved success for the Dutchman, but one which was certainly facilitated by the collapse of Ferrari’s performance in the second part of the 2022 Formula 1 championship. In his usual post-race editorial for Formule1.nl, former Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve wanted to make some considerations on the (non) world championship battle between the Red Bull man and Charles Leclerc, focusing on the situation of the Monegasque within the Maranello team.

Below what the Canadian wrote:
“Max Verstappen obviously deserved to win the championship. Aside from the first three races, Red Bull were almost perfect. Ferrari collapsed, the team made mistakes too often, which also increased the pressure on Charles (Leclerc, Ed.) He also started making mistakes and the question will always remain: Would his errors have happened without the team’s mistakes? His error when in the lead at Paul Ricard was ultimately crucial for the championship. And yesterday it happened again at the last corner “.

On Max Verstappen and Red Bull
“Sure, Verstappen would have won anyway, but Red Bull got the perfect finish. They won the title at Honda’s home race. They were really super strong, they made great strides. I think the main difference was that the RB18 doesn’t eat the tires like Ferrari “.

On the season in general
“Classification aside, I have seen a good season with good racing. Last year the title battle was a thriller, but this year we saw really good fights. Formula 1 has exploded, it is extremely popular thanks to great races. This is what we want to see.” – Jacques Villeneuve concluded.