“It is unacceptable,” Charles Leclerc takes entire blame for costly error in France
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Charles Leclerc
It was all going very well for Charles Leclerc in the French Grand Prix. The Monegasque was comfortably in the lead of the race, and Max Verstappen had already pitted. The Ferrari looked the better car, and Carlos Sainz, who was making his way up through the field, gave ample evidence of that fact. But it didn’t last long.
On lap 18, the Monegasque lost the car and went into the barriers. While it seemed that he had not completely destroyed his car beyond repair, there was no way he could reverse the car, and his frustration was there for all to see. The crash has come at a very bad time for Leclerc, who had only just won his first race since Australia, after an extremely disrupted period from Spain to Silverstone.
It remains to be seen if this crash will prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Leclerc and Ferrari’s championship charge. The Monegasque is now 63 points behind Max Verstappen, while he was 38 behind going into this weekend, and looked good to be cutting that down. Ferrari are now 82 points behind Red Bull and only 44 in front of Mercedes. It has been another disastrous weekend for them, at a time when they desperately needed a clean one.
What makes it worse is that Carlos Sainz had a winning pace, and looked the more comfortable driver. Without penalties, he would have been with a chance for the win. And even then, Ferrari made some very confusing decisions with his strategy, and even Nico Rosberg was left lost for words on what was going on.
Also Read: WATCH: Charles Leclerc’s heartbreaking radio outburst after his French GP crash
Charles Leclerc on his mistake: “I don’t deserve to win the championship by doing that”
After his crash, Charles Leclerc locked himself into his motorhome and refused to come out, which gives an indication of his mental state following the crash. Later, when he finally emerged to give interviews, he sounded despondent and accepted full responsibility for the mistake.
He said: “It was a mistake. I don’t deserve to win the championship by doing that.” He also later added that: “I lost 7 points in Imola, 25 here. If we lose the WDC by 32 points, I will know where they came from.”
In Imola, Leclerc had spun while trying to chase down Sergio Perez for second place. But certainly, on this weekend, the stakes were much higher, and so was the mistake. If Leclerc had just spun, it is still not unlikely that given the pace he had shown, he would still be in with a chance for at the very least a podium, but this time there was no way to salvage the mistake, and the points loss was much higher as well.
Leclerc also clarified that the “I can’t find throttle.” comment was for after the crash, as he could not reverse the car. Following that, when he thought that the radio was off, Leclerc let go a scream that will be echoing in the minds of Ferrari supporters for a very long time. The incident itself was very similar to Sebastian Vettel’s mistake in Hockenheim 2018 when he had lost the car.
Hockenheim was acknowledged to be the race weekend that broke Vettel’s championship charge. Leclerc will hope that it isn’t the case for him, but Vettel had actually been in front, so he did not have near as much of a deficit to Hamilton as Leclerc does to Verstappen now. It is not looking good for the Monegasque now, and neither is it looking good for Ferrari.
They desperately need a flawless weekend in Hungary, if they want to have any chance at the championship, but right now, it isn’t looking very likely, and this time, unlike in Silverstone, Monaco, or Spain, Leclerc has no one to blame but himself.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)