Charles Leclerc said any description of him as a "model student" would be "a very bad interpretation" of his character.
The Monegasque was accused of not having the "courage" to take more responsibility for strategy calls by Damon Hill in the wake of one of Ferrari's most galling blunders this season. It happened in Brazil, when he was put on intermediate tyres for the final part of qualifying, when the track was dry.
Leclerc questioned if he was the only one not to be on slicks at the time, when he exited the pit lane to see a dry track before him. After being told that he was indeed the only one of the 10 drivers on intermediates at that point, he replied sarcastically: "Beautiful, f***ing beautiful."
Sky Sports pundit Hill noted that message, but still thinks the Monegasque can be more forceful in making demands of his team, at least in public. He said: "I think you can see Charles is sort of criticising the team on the radio effectively by saying 'nice one guys, thanks very much'.
"But he has to assume some responsibility as well – maybe they are not letting him do that, or he hasn't got the courage to assume it for themselves." That verdict may have been the inspiration for a question from L'Equipe when the Ferrari driver sat down for an interview with the French outlet.
The interviewer suggested to Leclerc that he gave the "impression of being a model student who never questions decisions". To that, the driver gave a stern response: "I clearly think that is a very bad interpretation."
Leclerc added: "As a driver, if we want to win the championship one day, it's not by making decisions in the car, by having five per cent of the information that the strategists have. It's by getting the information from the pit wall, that's how we'll win. The best approach is that we all get on the same page with the team and then make decisions together. But they have to be the right ones."
Asked about going into the Abu Dhabi season finale with nothing to play for other than securing second place in the standings, the 25-year-old added: "I still had [motivation]. I wanted us to try to improve in all these areas. Afterwards, it's true that sometimes, especially in the heat of the moment, when it doesn't work, emotions come out.
"It can be frustration or irritation. But in the end, I used all these emotions as fuel for my motivation, by going back to Maranello and trying to work even harder to try to understand these mistakes and not to repeat them."
