What Happened to Charles Leclerc at the Imola GP in 2022?

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” The adage suits Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who, at the Imola GP last year, pushed himself to the limit and learned an important lesson in the process. It was pouring down heavily and last year the rain gods intervened just in time to demonstrate to Charles Leclerc a lesson. So, what transpired at the Imola GP with the Monegasque, and how did he learn that important lesson?

At the Imola Grand Prix in 2022, Leclerc was attempting to overtake P2 driver Sergio Perez when he ran into some curbs and spun out at the Variante Alta chicane. After the race, the Monegasque readily acknowledged that he had grown greedy and wanted to finish at P2.

How did the event unfold at Imola GP?

Leclerc won two of the first three races the previous season. However, despite having a commanding lead in the championship, the Monegasque still took some extra risk. Behind Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the 25-year-old appeared set to place third. Unfortunately, the Ferrari driver ran into a barrier and had to return to the pits for front wing repairs. In the end, after starting ninth from the pits, the Ferrari driver eventually moved up to sixth. The incident left Leclerc’s lead over Max Verstappen, his title challenger to only 27 points.

Immediately following the race, the Monaco native acknowledged being greedy and argued that making these kinds of “big mistakes” may cost him. While talking to Sky Sports F1 he said, “I believe the spin shouldn’t have happened today. P3 was the best I could do, we didn’t have the pace for much more and I was too greedy, and I paid the price for it and lost seven potential points compared to my third place.”

The day took an adverse turn when Carlos Sainz, the other Ferrari driver, suffered a DNF following the first lap incident. On the other hand, the gap between Red Bull and Ferrari was considerably cut down on this day, which was noted for Red Bull as being the best since it was the first time after 2016 that both RB cars were seen placing 1-2. While speaking of the battle of both the team Leclerc was found quoting, “It is very, very close and I think it will be that way for the rest of the season.”

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The incident generated a lot of debate in the F1 world, and Leclerc and Ferrari received a lot of advice as well as criticism. One such remark was made by the 2016 champion Nico Rosberg, who was well aware of how a mistake like this may lose a driver the championship.

What remark did Nico Rosberg have for Charles Leclerc and Co.?

Nico Rosberg had personally made sacrifices to take on his teammate Lewis Hamilton and defeat him to win his first championship back in 2016. Agreeing with Leclerc’s comments that the 25-year-old needs to avoid these kinds of errors, the 2016 champion remarked, “Charles… if you’re fighting for a championship against Max Verstappen you just cannot allow yourself to spin out there when you’re just driving on your own.”

While stating how keeping away from it can help him win the championship the German added, ” To spin like that, my goodness, he has to avoid that for the rest of the season if he wants to win the championship.”

In the end, Rosberg marked it as the “dark day” in Ferrari’s history, and while concluding he said, “They were really hoping for a win today and to celebrate and this has been an extremely dark day.”

Charles Leclerc knew the repercussion of the mistake will certainly be used by Max Verstappen to his advantage. And later after the Emilia Romagna GP while talking to Motorsports.com, Leclerc added that he won’t be committing any such mistakes in the future.

What did Charles Leclerc say after the mistake at Imola GP?

Last year, Ferrari struggled with a number of issues, including driver error, reliability problems, and tactical mistakes. If that hadn’t happened, the Ferrari driver might have won the coveted title. However, after losing a significant lead to Verstappen at the Imola GP, Leclerc was heard saying that he would take a lesson from it and wouldn’t make the same blunder repeatedly.

As per planetf1, he said, “I’ve always been strong in knowing exactly which particular feeling I felt at what moment of the race, and know how to correct it. So yeah, it’s a mistake, but I’ll learn from it and won’t do it again.”

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Leclerc’s gap to the Dutchman, who won his second world title by making fewer mistakes and possessed a ruthless RB18, remained at 146 points at the end of the season.