'Hate To Find Excuses': Leclerc On His Struggles With Ferrari Car In 2023

Tuesday, 03 October 2023 at 01:30

Updated at Monday, 06 November 2023 at 13:15

Charles Leclerc is one of the most talented drivers in F1, but he has struggled a lot during the 2023 season.

Not every season is perfect, and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton could talk about it for hours. For Ferrari, the situation is similar, even though the team didn't have as strong title run as the German team in recent years.

However, in 2022, Leclerc challenged Red Bull's Max Verstappen for the title, or at least, it seemed that he could do it early in the season. However, as the season developed, the Monegasque driver proved to be no challenge for the Dutch, who claimed his second Formula One World Drivers' Championship.

In 2023, Ferrari had ambitions to put the unsuccessful season behind them, and this time around, finally put their driver, or their team, closer to winning the title. But already early in the season, it was obvious that it wouldn't be happening.

Now, already in October, Leclerc, who trails his teammate Carlos Sainz, who is "not as blessed with talent" according to Ralf Schumacher, by 15 points in the F1 Standings, admits in talk to the-race.com that despite having difficulties with navigating his car's rear-end, he doesn't want to find excuses, as in the end, it's him who sets up the car.

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“"I mean, I've always been challenging the rear, a lot! For sure. And definitely too much at some points at the beginning of the season. But it's something that I hate to find excuses for, in a way. In the end, I am the driver, I am the one setting up the car. And this was my choice to have such a strong front at the beginning of the season, when maybe the car couldn't handle it because it was inconsistent."”

Throughout the season, Leclerc struggled multiple times, and while sometimes a driver can't avoid a mistake, in this case, the 25-year-old knew that he was the source of the mistakes, and also knew exactly why they happened.

“"So, at the end, it's still from me. Those mistakes, I know exactly why they arrived. And why it happened. And this is the most important because then you learn from it for the rest of the season. We are obviously in a very different place compared to where we were last year. We had a very, very strong front end, and it was very consistent throughout the whole year. This year is a bit more difficult to manage."”

With only a few more races remaining in the 2023 season, Leclerc can only look ahead and hope that he could be a more dangerous driver in 2024, especially, when it seems that Max Verstappen's and Red Bull's dominance is not going anywhere.