Charles Leclerc Ends Crucial 8-Week Dry Streak but Remains Unhappy: “I Smile, But…”

Charles Leclerc has been going through a rough patch off-late. However, calling it a rough patch might be an understatement for the Ferrari man. Who was considered the title contender at the start of the season and is now 109 points behind the championship leader. Looking back at his recent weekend, Leclerc has given his thoughts.

Even though the Monegasque has finished the Zandvoort race in P3 behind Max Verstappen and George Russell, he wants more. At least that is what he shared in a post-race conference at the Dutch Grand Prix. It’s not a podium that the Ferrari driver wishes for, it’s the wins.

With the podium he picked up in the Netherlands, the 24-year-old driver broke an 8-week streak of not being on the podium.

Nevertheless, talking about his hunger for the win, Leclerc stated, “With a normal race, second place would have been possible, but not victory.” (translated using Google Translate)

“That’s what matters to me and what we have to work on to get back to the top. Does the podium make me smile? I smile, but I want to win, not finish second or third.”

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“Honestly, I think it was difficult to do better, Max was too fast and the Mercedes flew on hard tires.” continued Leclerc. “Fighting for the title? Now the gap is very wide. Let’s take one race at a time and see what we can do,” concluded the 24-year-old.

How did Charles Leclerc’s performances fare off late?

The Austrian Grand Prix was the last race when the driver from Monaco was on the podium. It was a win for the Ferrari driver ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton. On the contrary, it’s quite shocking for the Ferrari fans as well as Leclerc fans to digest how their favorite man has not found some consistency.

Leclerc picked up two wins and a P2 in the first two races. From there on, it was just three podiums in 12 races. Even though Ferrari looked very strong at the start of the season, their strategic decisions were the principal reasons for the slump in Charles Leclerc’s performance.

Currently, in this season, Charles Leclerc picked up three wins and seven pole positions. The latest P3 at Zandvoort is the Monegasque’s sixth podium of 2022 and 19th of all time. As for the points, the Ferrari man picked up 201 points so far in all 15 races.

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All in all, the championship seems to go far away from the former Sauber driver with every race. However, Leclerc is a known fighter and is very renowned for his character and speed on the track. It’ll be interesting to see how the young Monegasque can make the most of his chances when F1 goes to Monza next week.