Charles Leclerc’s Ambitious Goals Come Crashing Down as Surprising Max Verstappen Statistic Gives Harsh Reality Check

Despite making leaps of progress since last year, Ferrari hasn’t found too much to rejoice about. After failing to seriously compete for the two championships for some years, the 2022 season opener came as a breath of fresh air. The car had pace, Mercedes was nowhere near, and both Red Bull drivers fell prey to reliability issues. Things could not have gone better for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. However, as the season progressed, all ambitions came crashing down owing to either the enigma that is Max Verstappen or to some serious internal issues at Maranello. The story continued in the 2023 season opener in Bahrain. All this failure, year after year, has given birth to an unwanted statistic that left Leclerc red-faced once he was exposed to it.

Ferrari, with the determination to put the last year’s woes behind them under the new leadership of Frederic Vasseur, touched the tarmac in Sakhir. However, even before the race began, many, including them, couldn’t believe their eyes as the Red Bull boys set timings on Saturday. They wrote the script for what was to come on Sunday, but things were going to turn worse for the red team. First, Verstappen and Sergio Perez secured the perfect 1-2 finish. Then, Leclerc bowed out owing to engine failure. Finally, Fernando Alonso turned on the beast mode and snatched the podium away from Sainz.

During a recent interview, Canal Plus told Leclerc about a statistic that swept away the floor under his feet. They told him that his rival, Verstappen, had won more races individually in the last two years than Ferrari managed in ten years (25 against 23). The Monegasque, left embarrassed, admitted it was painful to compare his team with Red Bull.

“We were not surprised that this happened after the test days,” he said. “It was painful to compare ourselves to Red Bull.”

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In the post-race interview, Charles had some harsh words for the team while he praised Red Bull’s effort.

Red Bull in a league of their own – Charles Leclerc

Despite starting the race in P3, Leclerc quickly took the P2 from Perez. He maintained the lead for the position for some time but the car never had it in it to hold the Mexican off for too long. Embarrassment did not end for Charles just yet, though. He bowed out of the race on Lap 41 owing to engine failure.

Speaking post-race, as quoted by Si.com, he told, “It’s a shame but I don’t know what to say. We didn’t finish the race. We knew we would be on the back foot in terms of performance compared to Red Bull but it’s a shame it’s like this.

“I had a good start, then in second place for a few laps which was the best we could hope for. Then we got overtaken by Checo which was just a matter of time. They are in a league of their own in terms of speed. We couldn’t challenge them but all of that doesn’t matter because we didn’t finish the race.”

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The news coming out from Maranello suggests that the Monegasque’s misery might continue in Jeddah this weekend. They might have to change two ICE components which could see him take either a 10-place grid penalty or worse, start the race from the back of the grid.