Photo: Scuderia Ferrari Press Office
This has been a difficult season for both Ferrari and their star driver, Charles Leclerc. After a tremendous start to the year, the Scuderia found themselves backed into a corner by Red Bull, while also struggling with various strategy issues during race days.
Despite taking nine pole positions this year, Leclerc has only managed to win three times – the last time in Austria this past summer. Since then, Max Verstappen has won six races (and is now world champion), with Sergio Perez claiming victory in Singapore.
When asked about what his team needs to do in order to improve going forward, Leclerc was very blunt with his answer: “It’s Sunday execution as a whole, it’s loads of things. It’s tire management, as we’ve seen at the last races, is a weak point, communication, strategy, reliability.”
“Just to be a stronger team on the Sunday and finalize the weekend in the strongest way possible because the Saturday is often very strong, but the Sunday, things often fall apart.”
To say things “fall apart” during race day may sound rather harsh, but it is a good representation of the facts, as far as Ferrari are concerned.
“Well, I think for strategy, communication, etcetera, there have been a few races now that we’ve been working on it, and I’ve seen positive signs so that is good. Then there is the tire management, which we’ve seen in the last few races, and this is a bit more difficult; we need to identify all the causes of it.”
The Monegasque driver then admitted to being “disappointed” with how this season has gone, yet chooses to keep his head up.
“When I look back at the season, coming from 2020 into 2021 which has been very difficult for the team and this year we did a huge step forward in terms of performance, but there were loads of missed opportunities and parts of the season where there were too many mistakes, so it’s been a frustrating season overall. But on the other hand, I’m sure it will help us to get better in the future.”
When asked about what his team needs to do in order to improve going forward, Leclerc was very blunt with his answer: “It’s Sunday execution as a whole, it’s loads of things. It’s tire management, as we’ve seen at the last races, is a weak point, communication, strategy, reliability.”
“Just to be a stronger team on the Sunday and finalize the weekend in the strongest way possible because the Saturday is often very strong, but the Sunday, things often fall apart.”
To say things “fall apart” during race day may sound rather harsh, but it is a good representation of the facts, as far as Ferrari are concerned.
“Well, I think for strategy, communication, etcetera, there have been a few races now that we’ve been working on it, and I’ve seen positive signs so that is good. Then there is the tire management, which we’ve seen in the last few races, and this is a bit more difficult; we need to identify all the causes of it.”
The Monegasque driver then admitted to being “disappointed” with how this season has gone, yet chooses to keep his head up.
“When I look back at the season, coming from 2020 into 2021 which has been very difficult for the team and this year we did a huge step forward in terms of performance, but there were loads of missed opportunities and parts of the season where there were too many mistakes, so it’s been a frustrating season overall. But on the other hand, I’m sure it will help us to get better in the future.”
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