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Marcus Ericsson feels Charles Leclerc is pushing too hard this season as Ferrari end up making far too many mistakes. Ericsson was the Monegasque's first teammate in F1 when the pair raced for Sauber in 2018.
Speaking about Leclerc's 2022 F1 season so far, Ericcson claimed that he felt the Ferrari driver was feeling the pressure of things being out of his control and hence pushing too hard. He even attributed Leclerc's crash in France to the same reason, as compared to Max Verstappen.
Speaking to SkyF1, Ericcson said:
“I think he’s very frustrated. I think that he’s been fast this year, but it’s just been a lot of issues. What happened in Paul Ricard, one of the reasons why it happened, I think it’s because Charles is a bit frustrated – he wants to win races. He wants to get back in the championship hunt and it just is not being the case.”
He added:
“Then he’s pushing, maybe a bit too hard. So it’s not ideal. It’s gonna be tough for Charles because I think he’ll feel he has had the opportunity to really fight for a championship this year. And he hasn’t been able because of quite a few things out of his control.”
When questioned about the issues that Ferrari is facing right now, Marcus Ericcson pointed out that a lack of trust in race strategies by the drivers was one of the alarming things in recent races. He said:
“I think the problem, from a driver perspective, and I think we’ve seen it quite a few times this year is that both Carlos and Charles are doubting the decisions that the pit wall is doing during a race. Obviously, that trust that you need to have as a driver with your team, it seems to be lacking a bit between Ferrari and their drivers and, over a season, that’s not good.”
Ericcson also cast doubt over the team's ability to bounce back now, especially after giving away so many points this season. He added:
“So it’s definitely a big question mark at the moment. Now they’ve lost so many points, I don’t know if [there’s] any chance at all that they could get that back now in the second half of the season.”
For Ferrari, it's either strategy or reliability or Charles Leclerc crashing
Marcus Ericcson also expressed shock at how something has gone wrong for Ferrari in every race. First came reliability issues, followed by strategic errors, then Charles Leclerc himself crashed.
After another strategic debacle for Charles Leclerc at Hungaroring, Marcus Ericcson said:
“They’ve been so fast all year. And still, they are managing to be 80 points off the lead of the championship and they seem to constantly mess it up, right? If it’s not strategy, it’s the car breaking down, or Charles crashing. There’s always something, it feels like, and it’s just so crazy when they have such a good car, and they can’t seem to capitalise on it.”
Charles Leclerc currently faces an 80-point deficit against Max Verstappen. With just 9 races left in the season, the championship battle looks all but over for the Ferrari driver.
