"We don't want anything to change" - Ferrari highlights Charles Leclerc's 'sensational performances' amidst his mistakes in 2022 F1 season 

Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies has claimed that the team does not want Charles Leclerc to change anything. Charles Leclerc has been sensational in qualifying this season, scoring multiple pole positions. In the races, however, the Ferrari driver has encountered one problem after another, ranging from reliability issues in races like Barcelona to himself crashing out in France. Having said that, Mekies does not feel that Leclerc needs to change anything.

Speaking to the media, he said:

“This year [Charles] Leclerc has shown to have such exceptional speed that it is an aspect that should not be touched. Charles doesn’t need us to understand, as a great driver, how far he has to push in terms of proximity to the limit. He is a master at this and mistakes can happen just as we do too.’’

He added:

“Let’s not look at the single mistake, but at the percentage of sensational performances by Charles, who was indeed exceptional on many more occasions than when he made a mistake. And we don’t want anything to change.’’

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Charles Leclerc might be pushing too hard: Marcus Ericcson

According to Marcus Ericcson, Charles Leclerc is pushing too hard to win races and stay in title contention because of the consistent shortcomings of Ferrari's strategy team. This has resulted in Charles Leclerc making mistakes like the one in France where he crashed his car while leading the race. 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.”

Leclerc is looking at an 80-point deficit in the championship to Max Verstappen and will be on the backfoot when racing resumes after the summer break.