“He didn’t stand a chance from Hungary to Abu Dhabi” – Fans debate over Charles Leclerc’s potential wins in 2022 F1 season had it not been for Ferrari’s alleged bad strategies


“He didn’t stand a chance from Hungary to Abu Dhabi” – Fans debate over Charles Leclerc’s potential wins in 2022 F1 season had it not been for Ferrari’s alleged bad strategies

Fans discuss Charles Leclerc's title chances if he had had a trouble-free season

Charles Leclerc finished the 2022 Formula 1 season with second place in the drivers’ championship. The Monegasque put in an exciting challenge to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the start of the year but his chances did not materialize as the Ferrari driver struggled with reliability problems, poor strategic calls and even driver errors on track. In the end, the 25-year-old only managed 3 wins, a far cry from the objectives of the Italian squad earlier this year.

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Looking back at the 2022 season, Charles was arguably the title favorite after the first three rounds of the championship, bagging 2 wins, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix. However, the Monegasque then started to lose out to Verstappen due to some alleged bad strategy calls by his team, forcing the 25-year-old on losing out on some potentially good results, in races in Hungary, Monaco as well as Canada. Although, strategic calls are always a gamble in pressure situations and a team may not be blamed for risking it.

Charles Leclerc’s engine failure at Baku led to him losing 25 points in the championship

Another major factor for his failure were the reliability issues faced by the Scuderia. Leclerc was forced to retire the car at the Spanish Grand Prix after leading the first 27 laps of the race, taking away the guaranteed race victory. Baku was another race where the 25-year-old had to retire the car from the lead, a double DNF for the Italian squad that weekend. Charles also was forced to take grid penalties on several occasions because of the unreliability of the F1-75, putting the Ferrari driver on the backfoot for the races.

The most heartbreaking moment for Charles Leclerc this year was the crash at the French Grand Prix, when the 25-year-old simply drove into the barriers, failing to make the corner. This again took away the race win and served as a major blow to the Monegasque. The Austrian Grand Prix was the last win of the year for Charles, with the prancing horse losing out on pace to Red Bull in the latter half of the season, and even falling behind Mercedes in a few of the races.

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Fans speculate Charles Leclerc’s chances of winning the championship if he had had a trouble-free run

Leclerc’s crash at Paul Ricard was arguably the lowest point for the 25-year-old this season

Fans on Reddit discussed the endless possibilities of Leclerc’s results this season, if not for all the problems faced by the 25-year-old this year. One fan however called out the lack of potential for Charles to win races in the latter half of the season due to Ferrari’s outright drop in pace compared to their rivals, the fan said, “France was the last time Charles probably a chance. He didn’t stand a chance from Hungary to Abu Dhabi.”

While another fan predicted the Ferrari driver winning at least 7 races, which would have led to a much closer title fight, the user commented, “That would have been possibly 7-8 races on Bahrain, Australia, and Red Bull Ring. It would definitely could have been a tighter championship.” There was also some unpredictability over a couple of races, which could have gone either way for the Monegasque, one fan replied, “Canada is just basically impossible to tell.”

Alas, there is no way to change the past, but we can focus on the present. Charles Leclerc ended his season on a high note after securing second place in the championship, and as we head into next year, the 25-year-old has publicly stated his desire to win the F1 championship in 2023, 3 years earlier than the objective set by the Scuderia. With the possibility of Mattia Binotto exiting Maranello, the prancing horse may be set for a new era as it looks to win in Formula 1 again.

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