Charles Leclerc Thought F1 Title Bid Was Over After Belgian GP

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has admitted that he felt that his bid to challenge Max Verstappen for the 2022 world title was over after the Belgian GP. Leclerc was anointed the favourite for the title after he won two of the first three races while Verstappen suffered reliability issues. But as the championship progressed Red Bull resolved its reliability issues and Ferrari had reliability issues and strategic mistakes. 

 "Many people believe that this moment is the French Grand Prix, but for me it was in Spa. During the summer break, I believed that we still had the possibility to stay in the race until the end,” he said to Motorsport.com. 

"Then the Belgian Grand Prix arrived and it was the first weekend of the season in which Red Bull was truly superior in terms of pace. After that weekend I thought it would be very difficult to keep our chances intact in the world championship,” he added. 

After the first half of the season, Red Bull for the first time in the season had a car that was genuinely faster than Ferrari in race pace which allowed Verstappen to zoom past Leclerc in the championship. 

"At present, I believe that the points where we need to improve our tyre management, communication, strategy and reliability, which was a problem that we had to deal with in the first half of the season and that we had to manage," he said.

"I believe that we have made progress on communication and strategy, especially in the last few races. The team has done a great job on these aspects and I have seen the progress. It wasn't very obvious because in some race the correct choices are less obvious. As far as tyre management is concerned, we still have to make some progress. We have seen a stronger Red Bull on this front, especially in specific conditions, such as at Suzuka. In summary, we know what we are missing, and on some fronts I am already seeing steps forward,” he added.