Charles Leclerc admits he is disappointed with how his 2022 season has turned out after losing the championship to Max Verstappen.
The Ferrari driver praised the performance gains his team has made over the past two seasons since it slumped to sixth place in the 2020 championship. But having won two of the first three races this year, the team has only won twice more since, and Leclerc admits they have let chances to do better slip through their fingers.“When I look back at the season, obviously we are going from 2020 and 2021 that [was] very difficult for the whole team, and this year we did a huge step forward in terms of performance,” said Leclerc.
“But there was loads of missed opportunities and parts of the season where there was too many mistakes. So it’s been a frustrating season overall. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure it will help us to get better in the future.”
Leclerc has lost potential wins due to unreliability, crashed out while leading in France and been frustrated by some of the team’s tactical calls. He admitted the season had been more challenging than others as he’s seen Verstappen reverse his early championship lead and clinch the title with four races to spare.
“It’s part of seasons in general, there are always ups and downs, more this year than in other years. Especially the middle part of the season has been very, very difficult.
“But mentally, I’ve always managed to re-zero before every race and to come to the races with a normal mindset having forgotten what happened in the previous races.
“Whenever there’s a mistake or something going wrong you always try to analyse where that’s coming from and then once you understand from where it’s coming you’re trying to move forward,” he added.
Leclerc slipped to third place in the championship behind Sergio Perez at the last round. However he says he’s “not really” concerned about claiming the runner-up spot in the championship.
“I mean, yes, it’s always nicer to finish second than third. But my main focus is not really on that.
“It’s mostly on trying to use these last four races for us to be challenging for the world championship next year. So we’ll try to use these last four races for that.”
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Michael (@freelittlebirds)
21st October 2022, 13:18
In Ferrari’s defense, they may have been fighting a losing battle and when you’re pressed beyond your limit you will make more mistakes. We saw that with Mercedes and Hamilton last year at the start of the season. If the person next to you is on steroids and running the 100 meters in 9.3 seconds, you are likely to pull a hamstring or falter trying to keep up with them.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
21st October 2022, 13:29
Don’t worry Binotto is going to come out saying you wouldn’t win regardless.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
21st October 2022, 14:02
This is what happens when you compete against the best driver in F1 history, who is delivering every single weekend with at worst 1 exception and even then it’s a podium or points paying position. Ferrari have to produce a car which is at least 0.3s quicker than Red Bull and only then title fight until the very end may happen. Otherwise it’s going to be Max Verstappen domination for years to come, simply because he’s much better driver than Leclerc.
Pedro
21st October 2022, 17:44
That’s a really bold statement. Neither is Max the best driver in F1 history, neither is a much better driver than Charles. Max is on a great form and tottaly dominated this year nevertheless the next years won’t be like that i Recon( and hope too)
Pedro
21st October 2022, 17:48
Btw in order to Charles get to Stay he Lost the Championship to Max he needs to clinch the 2nd place…and to me he still hás a longo way to go
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st October 2022, 20:01
I have a hard time indeed agreeing he’s much better than leclerc, they both made mistakes this season, verstappen for example hungary quali + race, spain race, singapore race, leclerc I don’t need to say because he’s already being accused of being worse, I think this year majority of the difference was made by the strategy team and the car development, which is not unheard of when one of the 2 teams is ferrari!
Mohit
21st October 2022, 15:02
Not really leclerc did mistakes and that’s where he can improve but I believe this season even with that Ferraris incompetence and poor strategy/ reliability made a huge difference . In equal cars and team as competent as Red Bull he can easily give max a fight and even beat him
Macademianut (@macademianut)
21st October 2022, 19:39
Just let RB start every race in 2022 from back of the grid as a penalty.
Mayrton
22nd October 2022, 10:45
He is not wrong. After the season start in which Ferrari scored well, there was never a doubt on whether they would keep up that form. The previous season had already learned us both the team and the drivers weren’t ready yet as we saw countless errors of both the team and both drivers in 2021. Out of the team, Carlos and Leclerc, only Leclerc made a step forward in 2022, but he needs another to get to the level of Lewis and Max. It needs to happen in 2023 or otherwise it is more likely his development will just scratch the surface of being on that level.