Why Leclerc feels better prepared for Ferrari Championship fight than 2022
F1 News
Charles Leclerc believes he is better prepared for an F1 World Championship title fight compared to 2022 because he has learned to deal with the pressures. In 2022, Leclerc failed to capitalise on a strong start to the season. Two years later, Leclerc is not in the mix for the Drivers' Championship, but Ferrari has an outside chance of winning the Constructors' Championship.
With five Grands Prix and two sprint races to go this year, the gap with McLaren is down to 48 points, so there's a small chance of winning the World Championship.
With that comes a certain amount of pressure. Especially with Ferrari, that pressure is extra strong. "Yes, I think I've learned to deal with it, because when you drive for a team like Ferrari, I've always said that I think one of the best things of a team like Ferrari is the passion, and people at the factory won't count the extra hours they've got to put in. However, sometimes this exact same passion can be difficult to manage, because passion means also emotions, and it means that in good times you go super high with the emotions, but in the difficult times, it is a lot more difficult to deal with it," Leclerc said.
Ferrari has taken steps forward
Leclerc has been driving for Ferrari since 2019 and has seen his racing team make many improvements. "We've been working a lot on that, and I think we are much more prepared to face those kind of ups and downs, and I don't think we are as influenced by the outside noise around the team than we were maybe two, three, four years ago. So on that, I don't think that it has any influence, and actually, we don't really realise that inside the team," he added.
"We are just motivated and happy about the actual situation because we are in a good place and we are working in the right direction, but we don't really pay attention to what's being said outside."
This article has been created in collaboration with Corwin Kunst