"I knew it was a weak point" - Charles Leclerc reveals his '100%' focus area for next season

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc believes that he could have avoided mistakes in the push for the 2022 World Drivers' Championship campaign. The Monegasque driver felt that errors on his behalf, like in France, cost him the championship.

Asked by Sportskeeda in a press conference to point out any weaknesses at an individual level that cost him the championship, Leclerc said:

"Well, if anything, I could have pushed less on some occasions like in France, but no, I think in the first few years, there was always an area in particular where I was focusing on because I knew it was a weak point."

The 25-year-old driver continued:

"I think now, it's been quite a few years that I'm in Formula 1 and it's more about getting the details and being at my 100% as often as possible. So, yeah, this is where I will try to focus on next year to try and be on my 100%. And then I'm confident that whenever I'm at my 100% I am really good."

On being asked if there were any key areas he could have improvised on as a driver in his fight for the championship, Charles Leclerc felt that he could have been less hasty in instances like the one at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France. The Monegasque driver spun into the barriers and retired from the race, giving Max Verstappen a clear advantage.

Charles Leclerc feels that he needs to give 100 percent into every race weekend more often and get all the fine details right on an individual level. While Leclerc made a few errors, his rival, Red Bull's Max Verstappen, was flawless and the buck often stopped at strategy and reliability when it came to Ferrari.

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Charles Leclerc believes technical directive did not hurt Ferrari too much

Ferrari’s strategy blunders and reliability issues cost the team severely over the course of their championship battle, but the technical directive introduced in Spa to stop teams from using floor tricks to contain porpoising could have also been a factor. However, Charles Leclerc believes that the technical directive specifically did not hurt them or wasn’t the reason behind their dropping performance.

Asked about the technical directive affecting their performance, Charles Leclerc said:

“I honestly, I mean, not I, but we, honestly don't believe that this has hurt us. We don't believe that it has hurt us. But, yeah, obviously, we've been looking into it quite a lot and we don't think it's coming from that.”

Evaluating Ferrari’s performance, there was a steady decline in performance after the 2022 F1 French GP where they had upgraded their car. But Ferrari's larger problem was reliability and strategic errors, which contributed to a massive points loss.

Despite retaining P2 in the drivers' championship for Charles Leclerc, the points deficit against Verstappen was a whopping 146 points. In the constructors' championship, the Maranello-based team almost lost second place to Mercedes, who struggled all year long.