Charles Leclerc Dismisses 7X World Champion Michael Schumacher’s Philosophy to Stamp His Authority on F1: “I Don’t Want to Change”

Charles Leclerc is a splendid talent who found his way up the ladder in F1 quite imminently. Leclerc started driving for a top team like Ferrari just in his sophomore season. In 2022, Leclerc went through the same cycle of highs and lows with the Scuderia.

Now Charles Leclerc is usually quite critical of himself if he experiences the lows. He reacted in a similar way to his mistakes in some of the races for Ferrari in 2022.

In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Leclerc spoke about how he doesn’t feel odd about admitting his mistakes openly. He said, “A mistake can be unique. That’s normal for me. I’ve always admitted my mistakes. I don’t think that’s bad.” [translated via Google]

“If the team makes a mistake, I tell them too. We’re honest with each other. With this way of working we grow together. So I don’t want to change my approach.”

F1 drivers have often spoken about how they should never admit their mistakes or else they will be misinterpreted as weak. One such driver was 7-time World champion, Michael Schumacher. The German believed the same and had the tendency to not admit his mistakes.

Now, Charles has a different point of view, which is quite valid. Admitting your mistakes may help you to grow and improve. Though on Schumacher’s perspective, is it better to criticize your and your team’s mistakes privately? It might avoid showing any weaknesses to your rivals.

Read More: Charles Leclerc Wants ONLY One Thing From Ferrari in 2023 and Being No. 1 Driver Isn’t It

Whether Leclerc considers Schumacher’s perspective or not, is his choice. Though he will want to implement the learnings from his mistakes in 2022 for a better title challenge next season.

Moments of Self-Criticism by Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc started the 2022 season in a mega fashion. He won 2 races in Bahrain and Australia out of the first 3 races But later, Leclerc made a few driving errors in further races at Imola and France.

At the Emilia-Romagna GP, the Monegasque driver spun his F1-75 at the Variante-Alta chicane. He was chasing a podium place while the Red Bull drivers led the race. After the spin, he had to settle for a P6 finish. He admitted his mistake of being “too greedy” post-race.

After this, two major engine-reliability issues caused Leclerc to retire from the race lead in Spain and Azerbaijan. Leclerc was seething on the team radio in denial as his car was coming to a halt.

Fast forward to France, once again while leading the race from Max Verstappen, the Ferrari driver spun his car at Turn 11. As he crashed into the barriers, Leclerc was breathing heavily as he struggled to find the throttle. Eventually, he screamed in total anguish: “NOOOOOOOO!”

While 2022 isn’t the first Leclerc has been self-critical, he also did so in earlier seasons. In the 2020 Turkish GP, he lost a podium to Sergio Perez and his then-teammate Sebastian Vettel. On the post-race team radio, Charles was absolutely pissed about missing out on a strong result.

Watch This Story: Best team radios of Bahrain GP feat. Leclerc’s despair

Leclerc’s moments of self-criticism are often seen, though the celebratory moments are worth the wait. The question is: Will we can have a surplus of the latter in 2023? But what do you think? Is Leclerc too self-critical?