Charles Leclerc declared he is his own harshest critic and admitted he was the architect of one of the key moments in the collapse of his 2022 title bid.
Despite a strong start to the season, Ferrari's challenge fell away badly in the middle of the season. As Red Bull went from strength to strength, the Italians crumbled amid engine reliability problems and a litany of strategy errors which proved costly.
But Leclerc also knows he has to shoulder some of that blame himself. The Monegasque made a few mistakes of his own – the most notable coming at the French Grand Prix when he lost control of his car and crashed out when leading the race.
His anguish at the time was obvious, evidenced by the gutteral scream he let out over the radio after hitting the tyre wall. Leclerc wasn't yelling in physical pain – fortunately he was uninjured – but he was angry at himself for making such a huge error.
After making sure of the drivers' championship, Max Verstappen pointed at that crash as the moment he knew he most likely had the title in the bag. "I think the moment where I thought, 'now we are going to win it' was after Paul Ricard, where the lead increased by quite a bit," said the Dutchman.
"We had a quite competitive car, I knew it was going to be quite close in the coming races, but I was like, 'this is a gap which we cannot give away anymore'." He was correct, only further extending his lead so that it stood at a whopping 146 points by the end of the campaign.
In an interview with The Race, Leclerc said he agreed with Verstappen that it was a pivotal moment in the title race which probably put it beyond his reach. And he prefers to shoulder the blame himself rather than look elsewhere for an excuse.
The 25-year-old said: "The toughest moments for me are always my own mistakes because I'm always very harsh with myself and whenever I make a mistake, I always take it in a worse way compared to when it's somebody else's.
"Speaking about my mistakes, yes, I made a mistake in France. But speaking about the season like I've done this year... honestly, you're always going to make a mistake in a season. This one was a costly one because I was obviously in the lead but it happens."
