Charles Leclerc pinpoints what's gone wrong at Ferrari in 2019

Charles Leclerc

Leclerc pinpoints what's gone wrong in 2019

Plenty of time to fix it.

Matthew Scott

Friday 7 June 2019 15:51

Charles Leclerc admits consistency has been missing from his 2019 season so far, after seeing glimpses of success slip through his and Ferrari's fingers this year. Although Mercedes have won all six races this season, Ferrari – and especially Leclerc – have had chances.

After becoming F1's second-youngest polesitter in history, Leclerc was robbed of a victory in Bahrain by an engine failure, while he looked the man to beat at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, until he crashed in qualifying and was forced to start in midfield.

Leclerc lasted just 18 laps of the Monaco GP last time out as he fought desperately to fight through the field from 15th on the grid following a Ferrari strategy blunder the day before.

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The 21-year-old trails team-mate Sebastian Vettel by 25 points, despite arguably shining brighter on occasion, something Leclerc puts down to his own failings.

"I think the only thing I can see from the beginning of the season is that any time we put everything together, we have been very strong," Leclerc said.

"But I think, as a team, and also myself, I just need to try and work with my engineers to be on top most of the time, which has not been the case until now.

"It's still a pretty new team, I'm still new to the team obviously and Seb has a lot of, well he has been with the team for many years, so I think the consistency also helps him in these cases.

"I need to work on that to try and be more consistent, but definitely in Baku and Bahrain the performance was great now we just need to understand and try to be there every time."

Asked if he was close to giving up on his title dreams, Leclerc said: "No, not yet. I never wave goodbye until it's done.

"Of course, it's been a difficult start to the season. We definitely expected more but we don't need to wave goodbye yet. We need to push until the end and that's what we are doing.

"Trying to understand our mistakes, trying not to do them again and improve from there, and I'm pretty sure the results will come.

"My target is always the same. To try and maximise our potential with our car and this doesn't change. I will just give it everything every race and we'll see how it ends."