Charles Leclerc's season from hell: How many points has the Ferrari driver lost this season?

The 2023 F1 season for Charles Leclerc has truly been one sent from hell. The Ferrari driver entered the season with a lot of expectations. The team even talked about a big game and was looking forward to challenging for the title. Unfortunately, that has not happened.

The season where Charles Leclerc was supposed to fight for the title has been the one where he seems to fighting either bad luck, his own mistakes, or the team finding strange (innovative?) ways to mess things up for him. Overall the season has been an utter disaster for him as he finds himself seventh in the championship standings even behind his teammate Carlos Sainz.

Talking about Charles Leclerc's season of Doom does however open up an interesting debate. In the first seven races, how many points has he already lost due to his mistakes, bad luck, and Ferrari's mishaps?

In this feature, we're going to take a look at just that. So without further ado, let's get straight to it and calculate how many points Charles Leclerc has lost in the first seven races of the season.

Total points lost by Charles Leclerc this season

#1 2023 F1 Bahrain GP

Leclerc had started the 2023 F1 season on a positive note and while Ferrari has been completely outclassed, he was still coming home in third behind the Red Bull duo. Unfortunately for him, it was at this very moment that his power unit capitulated.

The driver suffered a DNF and lost out on a podium in Bahrain.

Points lost: 15

Total loss: 15

#2 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP

The race in Jeddah was another such occasion where Leclerc suffered because of reliability. Being forced to change the ECU, the driver was forced to take a 10-place grid penalty and ended up finishing the race in P7.

What was however unfortunate in this scenario was the fact that Charles had qualified on the front row. In the race, it was quite obvious that Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin had similar race pace with Fernando Alonso perhaps holding an edge.

Even conservatively speaking, Leclerc was looking at a P4 finish after losing out to Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso instead of the P7 he achieved in the race.

Points lost: 6

Total loss: 21

#3 2023 F1 Australian GP

This one was entirely on Charles as an errant move on the very first lap of the race meant that the Ferrari driver was out of the race.

Even if we exclude how messy the 2023 F1 Australian GP became by the time the chequered flag fell, a top 5 result was surely on the table for the driver.

Assuming he secured a P5 in the race,

Points lost: 10

Total loss: 31

#4 2023 F1 Miami GP

The race in Miami was another such instance where Leclerc pushed too hard. Coming off an impressive race weekend in Baku where he secured pole position for both the sprint and the race, the Ferrari driver was aiming for a strong result.

Unfortunately, he didn't get it. A spin in qualifying meant a compromised race in which he could only finish P7.

Looking at Ferrari's race pace, he didn't lose much as the maximum that could have been possible in that race was a P5 (secured by Sainz). Assuming he secured a P6 in the race,

Points lost: 2

Total loss: 33

#5 2023 F1 Monaco GP

The race in Monaco was another heartbreak for Leclerc. Even if we exclude the team's strategic mess in the race, Leclerc's spectacular qualifying lap meant nothing as the Ferrari driver was handed a three-place grid penalty.

Qualifying in P3, a podium was going to be a possibility, especially if Esteban Ocon in an Alpine achieved it. Unfortunately for Charles Leclerc, that didn't happen and he had to be content with a P6 finish.

Points lost: 7

Total loss: 40

#6 2023 F1 Spanish GP

The race in Barcelona was another unfortunate scenario where something went wrong with Charles Leclerc's car in qualifying (the issue has still not been diagnosed). As a result, the driver was eliminated in Q1 and scored no points in the race.

Looking at what Carlos Sainz was able to do in that Ferrari, a top 5 result was surely on the table for Leclerc but it went begging. Assuming he secured P5 in the race,

Points lost: 10

Total loss: 50

Conclusion

It makes a sorry reading to see Charles Leclerc lose 50 points in just the first seven races. To put things in context, if Leclerc had not lost these many points, he would right now be 5th in the championship only one point away from Lewis Hamilton in P4.

The 2023 F1 season has not been the best for Charles Leclerc and he will be hoping to turn things around in the coming races.