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Charles Leclerc lost as many as 17 points to Max Verstappen at the Imola GP. Ferrari's home race saw the Scuderia hold the edge over Red Bull in Friday's Free Practice (FP1) session.
As the weekend unraveled, however, Max Verstappen clinched pole position from Leclerc and then beat him in the sprint race in a straight fight. Then in the race, things truly turned south as the Monegasque fluffed his start and ended up behind Sergio Perez while Verstappen streaked away.
In a bid to overtake Perez, Leclerc pushed the car a bit too much and ended up spinning out of podium contention. At the end of the Imola GP, the Ferrari driver paid heavily for his rather aggressive approach against Perez. In retrospect, though, the mistake could not have come at a better time for Charles Leclerc.
Charles Leclerc's approach lacked championship awareness
Speaking first about Charles Leclerc's approach, it did appear to be a scenario where the Ferrari driver believed in the philosophy of "don't fix if it ain't broken" as he went about his race in Imola. Until this season, Leclerc has not even once driven a car capable of winning the title. The 2019 Ferrari might have been handy at some events and could spring a surprise or two here and there, but it was not a car in title contention.
As a result, he has had an all-in approach in all races so far throughout his career. He has tried to extract the maximum he can from the machinery he has at his disposal and more often than not, it has worked. Even this season, it appeared to work in the first three races. Leclerc was leading the championship comfortably after extracting the maximum possible result available every weekend.
When you're fighting for the championship, however, you need to understand when to go full-beans and where to pull back. Leclerc's 46-point advantage should have warranted a more measured approach while chasing down Perez. He needed to be careful, and more so at a track like Imola, if the pitstops and the consistent pressure did not work. It was this championship mindset that Verstappen had last season in races like Portimao and Barcelona where Lewis Hamilton had the better car. The Red Bull driver fought as valiantly as he could but tried to maximize whatever points he could at the same time.
Leclerc's "self-critical" mentality will force him to learn from this
Charles Leclerc's infamous "I am stupid!" team radio from the 2019 Azerbaijan GP is a true reflection of the way the Ferrari driver approaches his racing. He's never the kind of driver that closes his eyes to the possibility that he might have done something wrong. On the contrary, Leclerc is one of the drivers that is the first to raise his hand if there's something that he feels he could have done differently.
Going back 3 years to that moment in Baku, Leclerc was in a class of his own at the track. He was putting together times that nobody was even getting close to. When push came to shove, and it was time to qualify the car on pole and take it from there, Leclerc, however, messed up. He was far too aggressive in Q1 that ended up costing him a very likely win.
After that race, though, the Monegsaque made significant amends. He was the most successful qualifier that season, picking up his first two wins in Spa and Monza. A driver of Leclerc's caliber, and most importantly, of his self-critical nature, has shown a rare ability to publicly admit where he went wrong and then grow from that. He is going to reflect on what happened at Imola and try not to repeat the same mistakes.
Fortunately, it's the fourth race of the season!
Fortunately for Charles Leclerc, he learned his lesson in just the fourth race of the season. To make things even better, he still has a 29-point advantage in the championship. With 19 races left, Imola can prove to be the perfect race where the 24-year-old makes the required adjustments to his approach and puts together a better fight. For someone like Leclerc, the mistake at Imola could not have come at a better time.
