Charles Leclerc endured a tough season fighting with Max Verstappen for the ultimate glory. Tom Coronel has presented his views on the challenge put up by Leclerc against the Dutchman.
Charles Leclerc had a solid start to the 2022 season winning the season opener in Bahrain. However, the Scuderia soon lost its momentum against Red Bull thanks to reliability issues and strategic mistakes. The Monegasque eventually came home in second. However, by the end of the season, Max Verstappen made a whopping lead of 146 points over Leclerc. Further, Leclerc’s fight for P2 also came down to the wire with the 25-year-old just edging out red bull’s Sergio Perez in the last race in Abu Dhabi.
There were some notable mistakes from Leclerc this year. The most memorable ones were at Imola and Paul Ricard. Both were unforced errors that cost several valuable points the Ferrari driver. The French GP crash cost him a whole race win.
Tom Coronel takes a look at Leclerc’s 2022 campaign
Assessing Leclerc’s 2022 title challenge, Coronel admitted that he was “disappointed” by Charles Leclerc. The Dutchman further revealed how he has “always been more of a fan” of Carlos Sainz.
“Leclerc disappointed me because he went very well at the beginning of the year, when everyone shouted ‘He is a champion candidate’, but personally I have always been more of a fan of his teammate Carlos Sainz, who had a lot of bad luck,”
Coronel wrote for Formule1.nl.
“People pretend that Sainz is second driver at Ferrari, but look at the scoring – Sainz was in front in 2021. Leclerc gets too much credit for me, compared to Sainz. Yes, in the beginning he competed for the world title, but in the end you have to conclude that he is not quite there.”
“Leclerc can drive really fast, that’s right, but that makes him a qualifying guy for me, not a good racer. With Max Verstappen it is the other way around.”
“Of course, Max can also qualify well, but Leclerc really excels at that. On Sundays he makes too many mistakes and does not handle the tyres well. In Imola and Paul Ricard it was also because he was being chased by Max.”
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