Twelve months ago Charles Leclerc left the Australian Grand Prix having picked up his second pole position, win and fastest lap of the season. He headed the drivers’ championship and Ferrari topped the constructors’ table.
Leclerc knew he had a good shot at the 2022 title and was brimming with confidence. But his season soon came apart at the seams. Leclerc was left frustrated time and time again as bad luck, questionable strategy calls and reliability problems saw his early championship advantage evaporate before his eyes.
The driver continued to back the team but by the Belgian Grand Prix in August, Leclerc had accepted his title hopes were over. Max Verstappen duly clinched the crown in Japan.
Red Bull looked unstoppable towards the back end of the season, and Ferrari needed to come back stronger for 2023. But a year on from his Melbourne high, Leclerc’s start to the new season could hardly be more of a disappointment.
“It’s definitely the worst start to a season ever,” Leclerc lamented, cutting a lonely figure as he addressed the media after the Australian Grand Prix. His race lasted precisely three corners.
“At turn three, I wasn’t planning an overtake at first on Lance Stroll,” explained Leclerc. “Then I saw he had to brake very early because Fernando Alonso was braking early.
“I released the brakes and put myself alongside Lance, and then Fernando had to brake even more. Lance found himself between me and Fernando, and he couldn’t turn in and we had contact. I’m not pointing the finger at Lance because I think he just had no choice. It’s just extremely frustrating.”
It was his second retirement in three rounds. At the season-opener he was heard shouting “no power” on his radio in Bahrain as his Ferrari ground to a halt. The team had identified a fault on Sunday morning in Bahrain with the control electronics and changed them, but this failed to prevent a stoppage which ruined his first race and compromised the next one.
Ferrari had no option but to change the components for a third time triggering a 10-place grid penalty in Jeddah. From his compromised starting position he recovered seventh place for his only points of the season so far.
Three races in, Leclerc lies tenth in the standings, Ferrari fourth behind Mercedes in the constructors – a stark difference to this time last season.
At 25, the same age as Verstappen, Leclerc should be in the prime of his career. He has proved time and time again he can be the fastest driver over a single lap and has racked up 18 pole positions. Yet since partnering with Ferrari in 2019, he has just five wins to his name.
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That conversion rate of pole positions to wins leaves a lot to be desired. Driver errors account for only a minority of Leclerc’s lost wins: Ferrari had more than their fair share of slip-ups. Last year alone Spain, Monaco and Azerbaijan were among the clearest examples of lost wins.
Ferrari reacted to last year’s disappointment by replacing its team principal Mattia Binotto. Frederic Vasseur arrived from Sauber to take over the top job and made an eye-catching change by moving head of strategy Inaki Rueda to a different role in the factory, with Ravin Jain assuming the high-pressure role on the pit wall.
Leclerc signed a five-year deal at the end of 2019 which will keep him at Ferrari until the end of next year. Given his torrid start to the season, you’d be forgiven for thinking motivation could be low with Leclerc, but not according to Vasseur.
“I have absolutely no doubt about the motivation of Charles,” he insisted. “For sure the start of the season is not ideal at all. We had the DNF in Bahrain and then the penalty in Jeddah, and the DNF in Melbourne. For sure it was not at all the plan, but the motivation is still there.”
Vasseur and Leclerc worked together at Sauber until 2019. “I have a good relationship with Charles,” he continued. “This won’t affect the mood for sure.”
He sympathised with the dejected reactions of Leclerc and team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr in Australia. “When [the media] are jumping on Charles or Carlos in the TV pen 30 seconds after the race, they can’t be happy and I would be very frustrated if they were relaxed and happy with the situation.
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“The most important for me is to keep everybody motivated, pushing in the same direction, and they are supporting the team. The motivation is not an issue at all. For sure the results are not the results expected, but we all know that.”
Ferrari are not deluding themselves over their lack of pace at the start of the season, said Vasseur. “The mood of the team is incredibly good for the level of result that we have. I think everybody is very motivated, very focussed.
“The drivers, they are very supportive with us and the mood of the team is more than good. For sure we don’t have the result that we are expecting, but we are all working together to improve the situation.”
But Leclerc has not won since the Austrian Grand Prix 14 races ago and is acutely aware the team “need to find more pace.”
Ferrari still have plenty of time before the end of Leclerc’s current contract to turn things around and make it an easy decision for him to remain with the team. But the process of doing that needs to begin with the changes Vasseur is making now.
In order to show Leclerc they are capable of delivering a championship-winning season, the next few months will be crucial for Ferrari. As things stand, he admits he is yet to have a sufficiently clean weekend in order to tell just how competitive the team really are at the moment.
“For now instead of thinking of long-term targets just finishing a race without any penalties or issues is the priority,” said Leclerc after Australia. “Getting some momentum and seeing what’s possible.”
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