“The best version” of Leclerc for this new season

The 2022 season was a huge step forward for Ferrari, but insufficient to deprive Max Verstappen of a second title. An honorary place of vice-champion quickly swept away by Charles Leclerc in the Beyond The Grid podcast. " We tend to forget where we come from, in 2020 and 2021, he begins, but it’s also good to have that mentality. Being second is not enough. We took a big step forward, not enough to win the world championship, that's why we were very critical of ourselves at the end of the year and we tried to improve all the areas we could. » After a more than encouraging start to the campaign, the Ferrari driver winning the first race of the year in Bahrain then in Melbourne (Australia), it was impossible for the Reds to compete with Red Bull in the middle of the season. A drop in performance and results, which No. 16 considers to be multifactorial: “ We had reliability problems, strategy problems, I made a mistake at Paul Ricard and I lost 25 points, since I'm pretty sure we could have won. Taken together, it made us lose our dynamic. »

But nothing to undermine the morale of Leclerc who, after an intense winter of training in the high mountains, presents himself in 2023 in the “best version” of himself: “ It's a sport where you're always improving and learning, whether it's a good day or a bad day. »

Fixing Last Year's Problems

Despite impressive competitiveness at the start of the season, the Scuderia was overtaken by several problems from which it suffered until the last Grand Prix. The reliability concerns first but, on this side, Leclerc is “ fairly certain that we have made progress, but let's wait ". A lot of work was also done in the strategy department which, here again, cost the Monegasque precious points all season. Frédéric Vasseur, at the head of Ferrari since the start of the year, even replaced the head of strategy: Inaki Rudea was dismissed in favor of Ravin Jain. 

The SF-75 also had trouble keeping its tires in good enough shape to maintain performance. “ I believe the tire degradation was not that significant at the end of the year, in the sense that the car was simply slower than the Red Bull, analyzes Leclerc. When you need to push more from the start of the race to try to stay in their tracks, you destroy tires more quickly and you see greater degradation. At the start of the season, by being more competitive, we could take more time to manage our tires. »

But he hastens to add: “ That's not an excuse. We had a good car at the start of the year, so that doesn't justify the mistakes at the start of the season. »

Leclerc was also criticized several times for his lack of initiative when, on the pit side, it was time for panic. The 25-year-old driver was notably compared to his teammate Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard not hesitating to challenge the strategy proposed by the team. Does the Monegasque intend to adopt this approach? “ I'm already really explicit about what I want in the team. I won't be more talkative, because I don't care what people think, he asserts. What matters to me is to feel good, to give my best for the team to improve things, that's my first objective. »

« As for being more talkative in the car and taking more charge of decisions, continues Leclerc, I don't think this is the right solution. People don't realize how little information we have from being in the car about the overall situation during the race. I believe that if we improve as a team, become the best together, that's when we will win championships. »

No change of approach therefore, despite the pressure placed on the team and its drivers. After conclusive winter tests for the Scuderia, a season of learning the hard way and Vasseur at the reins, the team hopes that 2023 will be the good one. But, on the other hand, Red Bull also seems to have made progress, with the RB19 dominating its competitors during testing.

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