French racing driver of Italian origin Jean Alesi, who remains very popular among the Tifosi, has praised Charles Leclerc for continuing to show “beautiful optimism” despite the recent difficulties encountered by Scuderia Ferrari in terms of reliability, but also some team mistakes such as poor strategy decisions or slow pit stops.
Charles Leclerc has lost 95 points Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the last six races, after he previously had a 46 point-advantage over the Dutchman after the first thre races of the 2022 Formula 1 season, thanks to the victories in Bahrain and Australia.
The Monegasque driver suffered a power unit failure in the Spanish Grand Prix while his was comfortably leading the race, then lost the victory in Monaco due to a wrong pit-stop strategy by the Maranello team, as he finished outside the podium in Monaco and then suffered another DNF due to an engine issue at the Baku City Circuit. As a result of the power unit issues, Charles had to start from the back row in the Canadian Grand Prix, taking penalties for the new power unit parts.
Charles Leclerc was able to recover 14 positions and finished in fifth place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, but former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi feels that, with a better pit stop from Ferrari in Canada, the Monegasque driver may have been able to achieve more last weekend, maybe even a podium finish behind his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz:
“If he had managed to return to the track after the pit stop with a margin over that ‘little train’ of slower cars, he might have been able to get on the podium,” the former Ferrari driver wrote in a column for Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera – “I say ‘perhaps’ because the Mercedes were travelling strongly at the end of the race. From the trip to Montreal, we needed to come back with a higher morale, I think this has happened: positivity and conviction are important to keep pushing with the awareness of being part of a compact and determined group. The work that [Carlos] Sainz, refreshed by the good Canadian test, can continue to do. He has been driving and pulling all the time and he too, I think, needed some reassurance.”
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Ferrari have lost important points in the last few races due to reliability problems, as team principal Mattia Binotto asked for patience among the fans and media so his team can focus on identifying and solving the issue that hampered them – especially in the power unit department this season.
However, Jean Alesi believes the 2022 Formula 1 campaign is still very long and is confident Ferrari can fight back and recover the ground to Red Bull, urging Charles Leclerc to continue staying positive about his prospects this season: “Leclerc is right when he shows beautiful optimism. Such a tight championship puts a strain on gearboxes, engines, hydraulics, everything. Technical troubles have come and will come for every team. We are not even halfway through the championship. There will be plenty of time and opportunities to recover, starting with the next round at Silverstone, a track that exalts champions.” – Jean Alesi concluded in his column for Corriere della Sera.
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