Leclerc did everything perfect on the 2022 Spanish GP weekend in F1 but leaves Barcelona with empty pockets. After leading all three free practice sessions and taking pole position on Saturday, he was in the best position to win the race, but a Ferrari engine failure on lap 27 caused him to retire.
Despite the disappointment, he had a positive attitude both inside the box as soon as he got out of the car and before the media. When asked what had gone wrong, he couldn’t give an answer, but wanted to see the glass half full.
“No, I don’t know anything other than what basically happened,” he told Sky Sports . “I didn’t get any signal before and it just snapped and I lost power completely, so it’s a shame.”
“Throughout a season sometimes problems come to you and today it was my turn.”
Despite this, the Monegasque prefers to be optimistic: “In those moments, I think there is nothing more I can do than look at the positive aspects and there are many this weekend. There is the qualifying pace, the race pace and, what More importantly, tire management. That has been a weak point for us in recent races.”
“I think we have found something this weekend, so it gives me confidence for the rest of the season.”
Even so, the problem was costly, and Ferrari only added the 12 points of Carlos Sainz’s fourth place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. “We will look at this problem, because we can’t afford this to happen many times during the season, so we have to find the problem,” Leclerc said.
Max Verstappen’s victory after orders from the Red Bull team with Sergio Pérez gave the Dutchman the 25 points he needed to take the lead in the drivers’ championship. Regarding that, Leclerc was not worried: “Yes, we will lose the lead, but it’s fine, I don’t look at that. I think the most important thing is your own performance and, in terms of performance, we are doing very well, so I’m looking forward to getting home next week and I hope to achieve a great result”.
Next weekend, Leclerc will have the opportunity to redeem himself at his home Grand Prix, in Monaco, where so far he has had no luck with accidents, a breakdown that prevented him from even starting the race last year when he started from pole and even an accident that went viral with Niki Lauda’s Ferrari. Will this course be your first triumph there?
