Round 10 of the 2022 F1 championship concluded in a bitter-sweet manner for the Ferrari camp. On one side of the garage, Carlos Sainz stood on the top step of the podium. On the other, Charles Leclerc was a frustrated figure.

The Spaniard started the British GP in pole position. However, lost out on the lead of the race to Max Verstappen on lap 10. The Red Bull later picked up damage and fell down the pecking order. This set up a battle between the Ferrari duo for glory on British soil.

The Monegasque was leading the race on lap 39. Nevertheless, the victory was snatched from Leclerc’s hands after a safety car, that was caused by the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. Under the safety car window, except for the race leader, each driver in the top 10 pitted from fresh rubber.

This translated into Charles being on an old hard compound, making him a sitting duck against his rivals. On lap 43, Sainz overtook Leclerc for the lead and went on to win the race.

Ferrari boss, Mattia Binotto, has explained the decision of the Italian constructor to not pit the lead car.

“It made sense for us to think about the track position. That’s not surprising at all, since we always prioritize the front car, and in this case, that was Charles.”

“If we had brought him in, the competitors would have done the exact opposite. Think, for example, of Lewis Hamilton in the season finale in Abu Dhabi last year. He also stayed outside.” Binotto said. (translated using Google)

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What happened was quite similar to the events that took place at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. At that finale, Lewis Hamilton suffered a similar safety car fate where he could not pit for new rubber. This presented his rival, Verstappen, a golden chance to box and put on new tires on his RB16B. Subsequently, the Dutchman made the most of the opportunity and won the title with an easy overtake.

Why the P4 at the British GP was a loss for Charles Leclerc?

The driver racing with the number 16 was in a good position to take his 3rd win of the season at Silverstone. A spin on Saturday in qualifying cost him the pole position. Yet, he showed an exceptional race pace to put himself in contention on Sunday.

The damaged Red Bull of Max Verstappen crossed the chequered flag in P7. This presented an outstanding opportunity for Charles to close the gap on his championship rival. On the contrary, he only picked up P4 and earned 6 more points than the Dutch driver.

It exasperated the Monegasque when he couldn’t take advantage of the situation. In the past few rounds of the championship, Leclerc has not picked up a significant amount of points. The reliability of the F1-75 and Ferrari‘s underwhelming strategy has been the thorn in his side.

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Notably, Leclerc has not scored a podium finish in the last 5 races. However, the Red Bull driver picked up some great points winning consecutive races before the British GP.

Such a series of events raises a lot of doubts about Leclerc’s potential for fighting for the world title. In the next round, at the Red Bull ring, the Monegasque needs to achieve a strong result to keep his dream of the world title alive.