Ferrari pinpoint key Charles Leclerc F1 strength that’s also one of his biggest “faults”

Ferrari believe that Charles Leclerc’s self-critical mindset is one of his key strengths as an F1 driver - but also one of his biggest “faults”.

Leclerc endured one of the worst races of his Ferrari F1 career last time out at the British Grand Prix.

His race fell apart on the opening lap due to an untimely switch to the slick tyres.

While Leclerc was able to run inside the top 10, he struggled for pace relative to teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Leclerc threw away a points finish with a mistake in the final sector, forcing him and ex-Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz off the track.

Still, it’s been a strong campaign for Leclerc overall, who has scored all four of Ferrari’s podiums.

Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur thinks that one of Leclerc’s best qualities is also a major disadvantage.

“For probably 10 years or so, one of the qualities of Charles is that he is able to blame himself, and one of the faults of Charles is sometimes he’s blaming himself a bit too much!” Vasseur said.

“As a team, I appreciate a lot the fact that drivers can say, ‘Okay, my mistake’ – this is positive, because it’s not bringing the team in the wrong direction and they are human.

“They are doing mistakes as everybody [does], and it’s good to have the drivers able to say this.”

Leclerc’s race pace improvement praised

Charles Leclerc’s reputation at Ferrari for many years was for his blistering one-lap pace.

His sheer speed on qualifying coincided with him often dropping back on race day.

While that wasn’t entirely his fault due to the characteristics of the cars he’s been driving, Vasseur praised Leclerc for his race day improvements.

“He did a real step forward in terms of race pace, perhaps also with the set-up of the car, and it’s all going into the direction to be more difficult for the Quali,” he said.

“But I remember perfectly that two years ago we were telling him, ‘Charles, we are scoring points on Sunday, let’s be more focused on Sunday, let’s be more focused on the set-up on Sunday’, because it’s Sunday that we are scoring points.”