After three races, Charles Leclerc had a 46-point lead over Max Verstappen in the battle for the World Cup title.
After nine races, he turned around.
Now he is 49 points behind the champ.
The season that started with Red Bull having car issues and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari driving has evolved from his rivals to the fact that Leclerc is still fast – in qualifying.
But to the fact that the car, team and driver are finding it difficult to deliver during the race distance – at the same time that Red Bull fought back.
Stable Max Verstappen has now won six straight races, the second longest winger in team history.
On the other hand, Ferrari has not won a race since competing in Australia on April 10, as Charles Leclerc had a 46-point lead over Verstappen. Since then, Monaco has had only a clean weekend, finishing second in Miami.
Otherwise, he would have had all sorts of problems:
Imola: is weave (P6)
Barcelona: Engine problems (DNF)
Monaco: Weak Strategy (P4)
Baku: Engine problems (DNF)
you have: Engine change (starting at P19 and ending at P5)
Can Charles Leclerc reverse the trend?
And now four courses of a completely different nature are waiting.
– Now he has a new engine for the upcoming races. We have four races left until the summer break and it will be of great importance to him, says Mattia Binotto, Ferrari team principal.
– Now he can be aggressive.
The distance that Verstappen built can feel reassuring. It’s roughly two race victories, but it can spin just as fast in the other direction. We’ve seen this before and by that I don’t just mean the start of the 2022 season. Last year Max Verstappen had a 32-point lead after competing in Austria in early July – but just in time for the summer break at the end of the same month, Lewis Hamilton was racing.
You remember Red Bull and its executives.
– I remember Silverstone last year, when we had about the same progress, Red Bulls Helmut Marko tells ORF.
– Then came Silverstone and Budapest Wang. All gone.
He also warns that Mercedes, which may not have had the speed yet, but has a very reliable car and a driver like George Russell hasn’t been outside the top five this year.
Everything can change very quickly and we must keep working, Helmut Marko tells Sky.
Mercedes made a really strong comeback and even Ferrari was stronger than we expected before the competition in Canada. In other words, it is becoming more and more among the three brands at the top.
Leclerc does not give up
Charles Leclerc also didn’t want to talk about anything other than that he didn’t give up.
not yet. There are 13 races left.
– It motivates me. In Canada, it was clear that Red Bull had some problems as well. He says reliability will play a crucial role, according to motorsport-total.com.
– But I know there’s speed in this car.
Here you can see the calendar for F1 2022.
Want to read more about why Ferrari continues to have some anxiety about the World Cup in F1 2022.
And if you want to read about Mercedes’ progress, here it is.
I wish you a wonderful Tuesday.