“We had a breakthrough good race”: Charles Leclerc admits his victory in Austria was “needed” to propel Ferrari in the title fight
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Charles Leclerc
When the Formula 1 2022 season kicked off with the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Scuderia Ferrari came out guns blazing with their all-new F1-75, and clinched the top 2 places in the grid for their two racers–Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. While reigning World Champion Max Verstappen failed to impress with a DNF in the first race of the year, Ferrari became the Championship favorite for this season and Charles Leclerc was touted as the potential WDC title winner of 2022.
But now that we are eleven races into this season, it is quite evident that Ferrari failed to deliver on their promise of a spectacular score. They lost their Constructors’ Championship lead to Red Bull after a series of engine failures and missed opportunities, as Charles Leclerc, who has scored the maximum number of pole positions this year, failed to convert his poles to Grand Prix victories, and Carlos Sainz got repeated DNFs. But now, with Charles Leclerc’s massive victory in Austria, the Ferrari crew has got a new rush of energy and the Monegasque has said that they are back in the game to clinch the Championship lead from Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc reckons Ferrari needed the Austria win after repeated poor finishes
While Mercedes and Red Bull were always considered as the best cars in the previous seasons of F1, this year, Ferrari turned the table on them and came out with their F1-75. In the initial few races, the car seemed near-flawless, but still, it showed its shortcomings as Carlos Sainz suffered his first mechanical issue with his Ferrari in Australia. The Spaniard DNFed the race, and that was the beginning of Ferrari’s slew of upsetting finishes.
And as for Charles Leclerc, there have been several mistakes on his part as well as his team’s, which resulted in him losing out on the Championship lead to his title rival Max Verstappen. Even though Leclerc has had the most number of pole positions in the eleven races, he has only got three Grand Prix victories so far, as opposed to Max’s 6 victories. All being said, Ferrari was in a slump for the last few races, and Charles Leclerc admits that they needed the victory in Austria to get their heads back in the game.
The Monegasque said, “I definitely needed it. I mean, of course, whenever I get to a new race, since five races, I have a smile on my face and I kept being optimistic, but obviously [with] hard race after hard race, it just felt like everything was against me. So, finally we had a breakthrough good race and it really feels good to have a win again.”
Read More: Sebastian Vettel to not appear on F1 TV shows: “I’m not going to be a TV pundit.”
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)