"A fight, especially outside, will not help them"- Former F1 driver on why Charles Leclerc should be 'patient' with Ferrari

Former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa feels Charles Leclerc needs to act patiently if he is to improve the situation within the team. The Brazilian talked about how it looks far too obvious right now that Leclerc is unhappy at Ferrari. The driver has lost multiple race wins either due to reliability issues or the team's poor strategy calls all season.

The driver's frustration has been obvious and he's lashed out at the pitwall on the team radio. Felipe Massa, however, did acknowledge that Charles Leclerc himself had crashed out of the lead at the F1 French GP, so it's not the case that the fault is entirely on the team either. Speaking to SkyF1, Felipe Massa said:

"Well, definitely, internally, he's not happy at all. But you need to be patient. If you start a fight now, it will not help the team. But also, Charles, we cannot forget also that [at the French Grand Prix] he made a mistake that gave away a very good possibility to win the race and score the right amount of points."

The Brazilian also stressed the importance of keeping things professional and not letting emotions get the best of the situation. Massa cautioned against the public blame game as it would only make things worse for the team.

"Even if you're not happy for the decisions, for mistakes that are happening, you need to fight in the right way - professionally. But not showing [those emotions] outside, because if you start to show [them] outside, it's not helping both sides, even if Ferrari made more mistakes here. [A] fight, especially outside, will not help them."

---

Charles Leclerc headed to the summer break on the back of losing another win at Hungary

Charles Leclerc's last race before heading into the summer break was just another heartbreak as the Ferrari driver lost another race win due to a poor strategy call from the team. The Monegasque driver was leading the race comfortably and pulling away from the following pack.

In a bid to respond to Max Verstappen, Ferrari pitted Leclerc and put Hard tires on the car. However, the Hard tires had proven to be a complete disaster prior in the race for teams like Alpine and Haas. Leclerc suffered the same fate as he had no speed on the tires and ultimately finished the race in P6 after looking destined for a comfortable win. After the race, Leclerc said:

"It's a shame we didn't bring home a better result, because the car felt good and we had a strong pace on Medium tyres today. Unfortunately, the Hards just did not work in these conditions. We now need to see what we could have done better, recharge our batteries over the break and be ready to fight in the second part of the season."

Charles Leclerc now faces an 80-point deficit to Max Verstappen in the championship.