“Charles Leclerc is a brilliantly fast driver, who is still maturing” – David Coulthard. Coulthard on Charles' 2022 F1 season.

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard believes Charles Leclerc will be able to further improve and grow out of the few mistakes. As David Coulthard points out, this was exactly the situation of Max Verstappen until last season, when the Dutchman made a decisive step forward and eliminated the mistakes which had let him to be involved in a few crashes.

Following two difficult seasons for the Maranello team, Ferrari proved to be competitive in the 2022 Formula One campaign, with the F1-75 car and Red Bull’s RB18 challenger the best cars on the grid in this first part of the 2022 championship, based on the new rules and regulation. Unfortunately for the Scuderia, the pace and performance seen on track is not reflected in the scoreboards: ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen holds an 80-point advantage over Charles Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship, while Red Bull are 97 points clear of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.

This is mainly due some strategical mistakes and power unit reliability issues which cost Ferrari and its drivers many points in the first half of the season. However, Charles Leclerc is aware there are two other moments that played a part in his deficit to the Dutchman. The first moment took place at the Imola circuit, as the Monegasque was pushing hard in an attempt to catch Sergio Perez who was running in second place. Charles lost control of his F1-75 car and finished in P7. The second unfortunate moment took place while leading the French Grand Prix: the Ferrari driver crashed out of the race due to what he admitted to being an unforced mistake.

Such errors can easily be the determining factor in a driver missing out on the title, but with experience David Coulthard feels that Charles Leclerc will sort them out and be able to challenge for the world titles in the following years. He also pointed out that Max Verstappen made several mistakes in his earlier Formula 1 years, before stepping up his game and defeating Lewis Hamilton in the fight for the 2021 Formula 1 world championship.

In a recent interview for Channel 4, the former McLaren driver was asked if he was surprised to hear Charles Leclerc being so critical of himself after the DNF at the Paul Ricard circuit. David Coulthard said:

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“I wasn’t surprised because that’s been part of how he’s been his whole time in Formula 1. Go back to Azerbaijan [qualifying, 2019] in the Ferrari, popped it into the wall at the chicane and said ‘I’m so stupid, I’m so stupid’. He’s not stupid, he’s a brilliantly fast racing driver. But he’s still maturing in front of the public eye, under the biggest pressure in Formula 1, that’s representing Ferrari. It’s more than a racing company, it’s a country, it’s a worldwide tifosi. Once he’s ironed out those little errors – and let’s remind ourselves Max Verstappen made errors like that in his early career – he will be the real deal.” – he explained.

After the summer break, Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari have just nine races to attempt a miraculous comeback, but most likely the Monegasque driver and the Maranello team will have to settle for a new attempt at challenging Red Bull in 2023.