Leclerc pinpoints three elements to Ferrari’s 2022 title failure

Charles Leclerc says tyre management, strategy and reliability are the three key elements to Ferrari’s failure to challenge for the 2022 F1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles.

After Leclerc won two of the season’s first three races and established a 34-point lead at the top of the Drivers’ standings, hopes were high that Ferrari could win an F1 championship title for the first time since 2008.

However, a combination of factors helped Red Bull and Max Verstappen ease ahead of Leclerc and Ferrari over the course of the season, and the Monegasque noted that the Scuderia would have to improve on three key areas in 2023.

Leclerc critiques Ferrari weaknesses

“It’s difficult to rank [the three elements] but reliability has been a problem at one point of the season, which we paid the price for later on with penalties and other things,” Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365.com.

“Strategy, I think we’ve done too many mistakes at one point of the season, and tyre management. We haven’t been consistent enough.

“We sometimes have very bad races and we don’t seem to have the understanding yet of how to have a good tyre management all the time, so these are the three key aspects in which we are focusing on at the moment.

“I felt like strategy has been definitely a step forward in the last few races [of 2022].

“Difficult to show because we don’t have the pace that we had at the beginning of the year but the way we communicate, the way we take decisions is better.”

Leclerc conflicted over 2022 campaign

Poor reliability saw Leclerc retire from comfortable leads in the Spanish and Azerbaijan Grands Prix, while some questionable strategy calls also cost the Monegasque potential wins in Monaco and Britain.

However, Leclerc did manage to win three Grands Prix and score Ferrari’s first victory since 2019, and the Monegasque noted his frustration at not being able to take full advantage of the Scuderia’s return to form in 2022.

“It’s difficult to sum it up,” Leclerc said of the season.

“If I take a step back, considering from how far we came from last year, it’s an amazing step forward.

“But obviously I cannot ignore our middle part of the season that has been super-frustrating.

“We went from leading the championship with quite a bit of points, to being behind by quite a bit of points, and that was a frustrating part of the season.

“All in all, we just need to take all the mistakes that we’ve done this year and try to improve for next year.

“I’m confident that, in terms of pace, we will manage to catch Red Bull back next year.”