Charles Leclerc may dream of replicating Michael Schumacher’s legacy at Ferrari, but he’s taking a totally different approach in relation to admitting mistakes. The Monegasque driver has a package able to difficult for world titles for the primary time in his short profession, but individual and team strategy errors have cost him in 2022 up to now.
Schumacher won five of his record seven Drivers’ Championships consecutively at Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. However the German icon was notorious for refusing to confess when he had made an error, commonly getting away with delving into the ‘racing drivers’ book of excuses’ due to his undisputed excellence.
For Leclerc, it is a contrasting approach. The 24-year-old believes there’s ‘no point’ in hiding mistakes and has admitted he ‘doesn’t understand’ why some drivers rush to make excuses due to the way it stifles progression in the trendy competitive environment of the game.
He told BBC Sport: “I actually don’t see the purpose of hiding it. And sometimes it’s so obvious to everybody that the error comes from the motive force. I just don’t understand the drivers which are attempting to have excuses with the wind or in any respect. I mean, sometimes it may possibly occur. One out of 200 crashes, you will get something very strange happens.
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“But I just don’t love to lose time with finding excuses because that is exactly if you begin to lose time, and you simply don’t go forward. This can also be good for the those who are working around me because they know that every time I’ll make a mistake, I’m gonna be very honest, and I hope that’s going to be the identical for them. So then everybody can just learn quicker, and it’s the case in Ferrari.”
Leclerc has sat on pole position in seven of the 13 races this season but has only converted two of them in victories and has three wins overall. Compared, Max Verstappen, who boasts more experience fighting on the standings’ summit, has been on pole just thrice in 2022 but achieved his eighth win in Hungary, stretching his championship lead over Leclerc to 80 points.
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The latter’s inexperience and Ferrari’s title-contending rust have shown on occasions this season despite the Scuderia’s illustrious history. And he’s explained that while every driver will react to mistakes in a different way, he prefers to face them head-on to assist improve and develop quicker.
“[Errors are] a part of the experience; it’s a part of the trail of anybody in whatever work you do – at one point, a mistake will occur,” Leclerc added. “Every individual will react differently. That is my way of reacting to it. And I’ve all the time felt the advantage of being honest with yourself and just grow from it.”
