Charles Leclerc makes the most of a bad situation with Ferrari F1

While Mercedes dominance in Formula 1 remains in the foreground in 2020, Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is a man who has done a very impressive job, albeit a little under the radar.

It wasn’t a perfect job because Leclerc defeated his teammate Sebastian Vettel in the first round of the Styrian Grand Prix. However, he immediately admitted his mistake and tried not to pretend it wasn’t his fault.

“In times like these, of course, excuses are not enough,” said Leclerc two weeks ago after the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria. “I’m just disappointed in myself. I did a very bad job today. I let the team down. I can only be sorry even though I know it’s not enough. I hope I will learn from this and we will come back stronger for the next races. “

In Hungary, Leclerc found that his Ferrari SF1000 was much worse in the race than it was in qualifying, and he finished eleventh, confused about the car’s behavior.

“I think something was wrong,” said Leclerc. “It just doesn’t fit the car that I had in qualifying, but also the day before on Friday, and we haven’t changed much. It was extremely difficult to drive. It just didn’t feel like the same car. “

In Austria, however, Leclerc made the Ferrari look halfway decent in the opening race of the season when it was already clear that it was a very average racing car with an uncompetitive engine. He only qualified in seventh place – team-mate Sebastian Vettel was eleventh – but surprised everyone, not least himself, by driving the car into second place.

“I didn’t expect it!” Leclerd said afterwards. “I think we did everything perfectly today. We were a little lucky with Lewis’ penalty and a couple of falls, but that was the goal – to take every opportunity.

“But we are still very far away,” he added.

Nobody expected anything extraordinary from Ferrari at Silverstone on Sunday, but Leclerc somehow managed to qualify in fourth, even if his best lap was 1.12 seconds ahead of race winner Lewis Hamilton’s pole position. Leclerc did this with medium tires, while Vettel could only qualify for 10th place with the softer rubber.

“It was a much better qualification than we had hoped,” said Leclerc. “I’m very, very happy with the work we’ve done and with my last lap where I think I put it all together and the car felt pretty good in terms of balance. I don’t think there was anything left to get out of the car. “

In the race, Leclerc never had any hope of keeping up with his faster rivals, but again seized every opportunity he had and fought hard, despite considerable pressure from Carlos Sainz ‘McLaren. He was surprised on the final laps when some of his rivals suffered tire failures and he was surprised to be back on the podium.

“It was a good race,” said Leclerc. “I was very happy with the balance of the car and the handling of the tires. And as soon as I heard about Valtteris (Bottas) tires, I slowed down quite a bit. Then Carlos failed two laps later and Lewis on the last lap… I’m surprised to be third but today we took all the opportunities we got so I’m very happy. “

This meant that Leclerc is fifth in the drivers’ standings after the UK GP with 33 points, in a car that could be said to be probably only fifth fastest on the grid, behind the Mercedes, the Red Bull, the Racing Point and the McLaren. And Renault is pretty close.

In total, Ferrari only scored 43 points, while Mercedes scored 146 points.

A few days ago, Ferrari chairman John Elkann admitted that he doesn’t expect the team to be competitive until at least the 2022 Formula 1 season. This is because the engines are now frozen and only one development step per season is allowed.

After Hungary there was a nominal redeployment of engineers at Ferrari, but the company tries to avoid the traditional sense of crisis that would normally lead Ferrari to a change in leadership under such circumstances. That’s smart thinking, but one has to ask how Ferrari got into this mess.

Mattia Binotto took over the team leadership in January 2019, so it was clear that the Ferrari engine suddenly became the most powerful in F1 and then fell dramatically when the FIA ​​tightened the rules on fuel flow meters. Elkann says the company has “full confidence” in Binotto and that “we are creating the conditions to be competitive and to win again”. He also says that he believes Binotto “has the qualities and skills to start a new profit cycle”.

Maybe he does, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who is usually a very diplomatic guy, has clearly lost patience with Binotto. The two had a very close relationship last year, but recently Wolff publicly stated that Binotto’s explanations of why the Ferrari lost its speed are “bullshit”.

Obviously, that bromance is over.

For now, however, Charles Leclerc is doing his best to take the pressure off Ferrari management, which means their faces are not as red as they maybe should be.

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