F1 Australian GP: Charles Leclerc miserable following first-lap DNF, deems 2023 season as the “worst ever”

Charles Leclerc was extremely despondent after retiring from the Australian GP, and called 2023 his "worst ever start" to a season.


F1 Australian GP: Charles Leclerc miserable following first-lap DNF, deems 2023 season as the “worst ever”

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc has had a torrid time of it lately, and the Australian GP turned out to be no different. In Bahrain, he had retired from the race with a mechanical issue late on, when he was running P3. In Jeddah, he had to take a penalty because of that, and then his pace fell off on the hard tires, and he had to settle for a P7. In Australia, he got taken out on the first lap itself, due to a collision with Lance Stroll.

Three races in, he only has 6 points. Ferrari themselves only have 26 points. His teammate, Carlos Sainz’s day also ended in disappointment, with a 5-second penalty for hitting Fernando Alonso. Because cars couldn’t overtake on the final racing lap, this meant he finished out of the points. Leclerc’s 2023 is the worst start to the season for a Ferrari driver since Felipe Massa in 2012. At this stage of the season last year, he had 71 points, and Ferrari had 104 points.

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Leclerc himself thinks that it’s his worst start to the season ever. Speaking to the media following his DNF, he said as per F1i.com: “Frustrated, obviously. It’s the worst ever start of the season. Only six points or eight points, I don’t know what it is in total. Frustrating.” When asked about his ‘prospects’ for now, the Monegasque said: “For now instead of thinking of long-term targets, just finishing a race without any penalties or issues is the priority and getting some momentum and seeing what’s possible.”

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Charles Leclerc: The start to the season has been a “disaster”

Charles Leclerc exits the SF-23 following his first-lap DNF in Australia
Charles Leclerc exits the SF-23 following his first-lap DNF in Australia

Charles Leclerc was obviously unhappy following his DNF – it’s almost like he can’t catch a break. Ever since his win in Australia last season, it seems bad luck is never too far away from hitting him. This start to the season has been particularly disastrous. Ferrari, and Leclerc both wanted to win the championship this year. Right now, that looks nigh on impossible.

In an interview with Canal+, the Monegasque said: “It shouldn’t happen so often. In three races, we haven’t had a good start to the season. It has just (been) a disaster. When we were third in Bahrain, we broke the ‘control unit (electronics)’, the penalty in Jeddah and now another retirement, so it’s really not the start of the season I was hoping for.”

Despite his displeasure with the incident, he does not blame Lance Stroll for it, as he felt it was a racing incident. One has to sympathize with him – the misery just keeps piling. Even on the other side of the garage, it’s not going so swimmingly. Luck aside, Ferrari desperately need to upgrade the car and make it faster. Despite their bad luck, qualifying P5 and P7 isn’t good for their championship ambitions.

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