'If we finish at Silverstone, we'll be fighting for the win', says upbeat Leclerc

F1

The last few races has seen Ferrari fall far behind Red Bull in both title races, but Charles Leclerc isn't giving up just yet

Charles Leclerc Ferrari at 2022 Canadian GP

Leclerc is still upbeat about Ferrari's title chances this year

Ferrari

Can Ferrari and Charles Leclerc start to turn their frustrating 2022 season around at Silverstone and make inroads into Max Verstappen’s world championship lead?

Last year the Scuderia driver nearly scored an opportunistic win after taking advantage of the first-lap collision between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, only to just lose out right at the end after the Mercedes driver overcame the penalty he was handed.

This weekend Leclerc will be hoping to win the British GP on merit, preferably from his seventh pole of the season, and that some of the bad luck that he’s experienced lately will transfer to his rival.

In the past few weeks the Monégasque driver has suffered the heartbreak of retiring with power unit issues while leading in both Spain and Azerbaijan. Then there was Monaco, where an early lead turned into fourth place at the flag as his strategy went awry on the drying track.

Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc reacts as he makes a pitstop during the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya on May 21, 2022 in Montmelo, on the outskirts of Barcelona. (Photo by Manu Fernandez / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MANU FERNANDEZ/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Leclerc has suffered various on-track heartbreaks this year

MANU FERNANDEZ/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In Canada he paid a further price for the earlier engine issues by taking a grid penalty and starting at the back. That race was all about damage limitation, and despite a slow pit stop crucially dropping him into traffic and delaying his progress, he managed to salvage fifth place. It wasn’t much, but at this stage all points are crucial, and at least the fresh PU means he won’t have to take any penalties for a while, assuming it holds together.

It’s not been a straightforward season for Verstappen either, with the Dutchman suffering mechanical retirements in both Bahrain and Australia. But elsewhere luck has generally been on the world champion’s side. He’s now logged six wins in nine races, and he has a 49-point lead over his Ferrari rival.

Leclerc’s two victories are in turn not a fair reflection of the potential indicated by his six pole positions, with only those in Bahrain and Australia converted into wins.

Smoke pours from the rear of Charles Leclerc Ferrari at the 2022 Azerbaijan GP

Baku brought more agony

Clive Rose/Getty Images

That 49-point margin looks big, but with 13 races left there’s still time for Leclerc to turn things around. Clearly it’s going to require much improved reliability in the Ferrari camp, and no more strategy or pit stop blunders.

If that happens we may look back at Leclerc’s humble fifth place in Montreal as a turning point as he made the most of a difficult situation and kept his head. He’d targeted fourth place from his 19th grid sport, so it was a reasonable outcome.

“It wasn’t too bad,” he said when asked about his race by Motor Sport. “I think unfortunately with the pitstop this put us a bit in a bad situation, because we had cleared the DRS train. And we got another DRS train after the slow pitstop, which meant I had to push on the tyres.

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“And that cost me a little bit at the end. But overall, it was just a race where I had to be patient at the beginning, I was stuck behind cars in the middle part of the race. I was stuck behind Esteban [Ocon], who had much newer tyres and was very good out of Turn 10, so that was enough for him to keep me behind. And whenever I had free air, I think the pace was really good. But it’s like this.

“It was all about thinking about the end of the race, and not getting too frustrated, because I just couldn’t do anything when everyone has DRS.”

That patience was exactly what was needed. It would have been easy to lose a front wing endplate or to flat spot his tyres in trying to work his way through the field, but he kept his head. That was exactly what team boss Mattia Binotto had asked of him.

“It’s something we decided very soon after Baku,” Binotto said of the PU change and grid penalty. “It’s something he was aware of since now many days. So he had time to digest, and be prepared for the race weekend.

Charles Leclerc driving for Ferrari at 2022 Canadian GP

Leclerc managed to fight back through the field in Montreal

Ferrari

“So he was focusing his race weekend, knowing that he would have started from the back of the grid today on the race. And so even his Friday programme and Saturday programmes was focused on high fuel runs, just to make sure that he was prepared for the race itself.

“And it’s certainly a frustrating situation for a driver. The race would have required a lot of patience, which I think has been the case. Because sometimes you would certainly like to overtake, but you cannot maybe because there is a DRS train, or because your tyres are worn.

“But finally, limiting the damage starting from the back and finishing fifth is still a good race result. And now he’s got fresh power units for the next races, certainly. And we’ve got four races to the summer break that will be important for him, where you can attack. And let’s try to somehow recover some points if we can.”

Charles Leclerc driving for Ferrari at 2022 Canadian GP

Ferrari has had to weather a storm after early-season success

Ferrari

As Binotto suggests reliability is key, and it’s now essential that Leclerc can at least get through the British, Austrian, French and Hungarian races without mechanical dramas.

It’s also inevitable that he will need another fresh power unit at some stage, but Ferrari does at least now have time in which to make the reliability fixes that are allowed within the constraints of the PU development freeze. Given the failures also suffered by customers Haas and Alfa Romeo, several related to the MGU-K, there is a lot of work to be done.

“Reliability is certainly important, as important as the performance,” Binotto noted after the Montreal race. “I think development from now to the end of the season is another one, [within] the budget cap.

“If you look at the power unit, it’s a completely new design compared to the past. And the problem is we’ve got some issues, because it’s a young project. On top of it there are limitations of the dynos which were not there in the past. So we can not run much on the dyno, we are limited, which made the exercise even more complicated.”

As Binotto suggested aero development is another story, and it remains to be seen how much new kit Red Bull and Ferrari will be able to bring to their cars in the coming months without busting the cost cap. Clearly with 13 races to go every tenth that can be found will be well worth having, if it makes sense within the financial constraints.

After losing so many points of late Leclerc has good reason to feel frustrated, but typically he remains upbeat. This is after all his first title fight at the top level – and no one said it was going to be easy.

Charles Leclerc driving for Ferrari at 2022 Canadian GP

Ferrari needs strong execution in all areas to get its championship back on track

Ferrari

“I’m confident that our car is strong, if we get on top of reliability,” he said in Canada. “[Montreal] was good. But as I’ve seen also, it’s a problem for everyone, I think reliability. So we just need to focus on ourselves. Performance is strong. And I’m sure that whenever we will finish races, we’ll be there to fight for wins.”

But isn’t he concerned about the advantage that Verstappen has established?

“No, I’m not worried. I mean, it’s a big gap but, but I’m just focusing on the job, and I’m confident that we can take that back.

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“Again, I think reliability seems to be a concern for everyone this season. And yeah, if we fix our our reliability, the performance is there to come back. So already from Silverstone we’ll try to get a few points back.

“I really like Silverstone. And hopefully we will be competitive enough to be starting on pole and finally win from pole.”

Leclerc has been the dominant force within Ferrari this year as his team-mate Carlos Sainz has struggled to come to terms with the F1-75.

Leclerc in contrast has been much happier with the car: “I like the way the car handles. I like the balance of the car through cornering. It’s a bit more of a pointy car this year. The rear is quite a lot more moving around.

“And this seems to fit my driving style a little bit better. But yeah, I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before Carlos gets at ease with this car.”

Indeed in Montreal Sainz had his best race of 2022 to date, pushing Verstappen to the flag to finish a close second.

Carlos Sainz Ferrari at 2022 Canadian GP

Sainz helped Ferrari’s damage limitation in Canada – it needs more of the same going forward

Ferrari

“I think he is race by race he is gaining confidence,” said Binotto. “Improving his driving and being faster and faster. He is happy, he’s more relaxed. I’m pretty sure that probably in the next races now he is somehow a contender, as well, for the win in a single race.

“It’s important for us as Scuderia to know that we can count on him as well, to know that he can be very fast and be a strong racer on Sunday.”

A quicker Sainz will help to lift the whole level of the team, and the Spaniard could potentially take more points off Red Bull. However it will get difficult for Ferrari if on occasion he ends up ahead of Leclerc, and the spectre of team orders surfaces – something that the Maranello outfit hasn’t always got right in the past…

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