For Charles Leclerc, 2021 was a somewhat disappointing season. The Monegasque only finished on the podium once and was beaten by his teammate for the first time in his Formula 1 career. According to Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto it could have been different.
Leclerc finished the 2021 season seventh in the overall standings, behind teammate Carlos Sainz who scored 5.5 points more and finished fifth. Leclerc also only finished on the podium once, while his Spanish teammate finished in the top three four times.
Leclerc could have scored more
Binotto told MotorsportWeek.com that Leclerc could have finished above Sainz but the Monegasque lacked luck in some races. He failed to start the Monaco Grand Prix due to gearbox problems, despite taking pole position on Saturday, and in Hungary he was one of the unlucky few to be forced out of the race in the opening crash.
"Without that, it is difficult to say where he would have finished – but there is at least 40 points missing in his classification," Binotto said. The Italian believes in Leclerc's talent and is positive about the steps the 24-year-old driver has made.
Silly comment as all drivers have bad luck through the course of a season.
His qualifying ability (In the car that he is driving) and racing skills are still among the top drivers in the field but he loss points during the season due to various reasons and thus eventually scored less points compared to Carlos.
Nah he just crashed to much. He has great raw speed but is too inconsistent and has crashed more than Mazepin this year. But still had a decent season he improved over last year were he was a wreckingball sometimes.
When a driver who feels the leader is hardly tested by a fellow driver who should be inferior, and is beaten, he easily runs into mistakes to prove he's the best. In Monaco, he went into the barriers alone and broke the gearbox. The decision not to replace a gearbox "at risk" in order not to start penalized by several positions, is a consequence of a driver's error and not a bad luck. Ferrari has two very strong drivers. It is often forgotten that Sainz was holding his own against Verstappen in Toro Rosso and was playing with Norris. In other words, if inferior to them, it is only by a small margin.
I feel bad For Charles. Very talented driver. Sadly, as 2021 showed, you need to have assistance straight from the FIA to be gifted a championship to make it in this business. They prioritize participation over real talent and won't hesitate to engineer an outcome for entertainment. Talent is boring, but mediocrity is entertainment gold!
Thankfully the driver who won the most races and led the most laps ended up winning the championship. When the 2022 rule changes to ensure no race ends on a yellow, adding an extra lap, your flawed assertion will be rendered moot, if not already so. Only cowards want to win under caution rather than momo e mono. Only haters forget how many times Mercedes crashed Max and denied him as many as 40 points, or overlook the "allegations" of obvious cheating. And only whiners selectively choose to focus on one lap, rather than the totality of a season where the better driver ultimately won the most races, the most podiums, led the most laps, and won the wheel-to-wheel battles with his rival. The better driver won. That's how it's supposed to be.
Popular on GPBlog
F1 Full Results | Japanese Grand Prix FP2: Piastri P1, Norris P2
F1 LIVE | Follow FP2 for the Japanese Grand Prix here
Mercedes breaks F1 rule ahead of Japanese Grand Prix weekend
