Mistakes: Charles Leclerc
(Picture: Getty Images)With one more race before Formula 1 packs up for the summer break, Charles Leclerc’s championship hopes are dangling by a thread.
After driver error cost him a potential win at yesterday’s French Grand Prix and led to his race retirement, he is now a whopping 63 points behind defending champion Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings.
Ferrari were not exactly waving the white flag after their latest in a litany of errors while Verstappen, who had pulled out a sizeable gap last season only to see Lewis Hamilton claw it back, insisted the title race was far from over with 11 races remaining.
“We are halfway only,” said the Dutchman, who proved the recipient of Leclerc’s error for a seventh win of the season. “There are a lot of races to lot and a lot of things can happen. I don’t really look at that lead.
“We still have a lot of work to do. We are still behind over one lap. I don’t expect Hungary [in a week’s time] to be our best track because I do think we are lacking a bit of downforce compared to Ferrari and that’s what you need around there. We will face tough weekends as well.”
The ensuing days for Leclerc will be painful as he debriefs on his rapid demise in yesterday’s race in which he careered off the track and into the barriers when just moments away from pitting for fresh tyres.
There has been finger-pointing around Ferrari this season amid a series of errors but Leclerc was adamant this one rested solely on his shoulders.
“I am performing at the highest level of my career but, if I keep doing those mistakes, it is pointless,” he said. “I am giving away too many points: seven in Imola and 25 here because we were probably the strongest car on the track.
“So, if we lose the championship by 32 points at the end of the year, I will know where they are coming from and it is unacceptable.”
Ferrari had looked the quickest car in winter testing and the opening races of the season as Leclerc won two of the opening three while Red Bull looked in disarray with a DNF from Verstappen in two of those grands prix. But that momentum has shifted in subsequent races.
The Imola error Leclerc alluded to was in attempting unsuccessfully to pass Sergio Perez at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and spinning.
But there have twice been engine failures not of his doing at races he arguably would have won and strategy errors by the Ferrari hierarchy proved costly in both Monaco and most recently Silverstone.
Despite the setback, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto predicted that Leclerc “will be back in Hungary stronger” but readily admitted things were now “more complicated” in terms of the championship battle both for the drivers and constructors’ crowns.
“The potential is there so I am pretty positive,” said the Italian. “There is no reason why we cannot win 10 races from now to the end. Could something happen to Max and Red Bull? It already did, as it happened to us. We need to focus on ourselves and do our best.”
Ferrari know they need a strong result at the Hungaroring on Sunday before the month-long hiatus for the summer shutdown.
Yesterday’s result was like the clock had been wound back to last year as Verstappen took the win with Lewis Hamilton in second place. It marked the first double podium of the season for Mercedes and Hamilton’s highest finish of the season although both he and George Russell warned they still lacked the pace of the Ferraris and Red Bulls.
After what was Hamilton’s 300th race in Formula 1, he said he had “plenty of fuel left in the tank” while team principal Toto Wolff joked talks had already been held about getting his driver to race No400.
“I’m still fresh and still feel I’ve got plenty left in the tank,” he said. “Of course, I want to get back to winning ways and that’s going to take time. I’m sure we’ll sit down at some stage and talk about the future. But I’m enjoying what I’m doing, I’m enjoying it more than ever.”
