F1 News: Charles Leclerc reveals the weaknesses Ferrari must address
Charles Leclerc introspected his performances from last season, admitting that he and Ferrari committed too many errors in the battle against Red Bull.
The majority of the F1 paddock is in agreement that Leclerc consistently maximised the potential within his F1-75 machine throughout the season.
Leclerc demonstrated incredible pace and racecraft in 2022, especially early in the season, when he went toe-to-toe with Max Verstappen on two occasions.
Unfortunately for the Monegasque driver, a variety of operational and strategic errors on Ferrari's behalf ruined any chances of the Prancing Horse sustaining a title challenge.
Red Bull was also more effective at introducing upgrades in the second half of the year, as the Austrian outfit secured 11 victories in the last 12 races.
Ferrari failed to secure a race win in this period, with a resurgent Mercedes compounding their difficulties in what became a year to forget.
With Fred Vasseur now in charge of the Maranello-based squad, the persistent mistakes which have plagued the team in recent years cannot be repeated.
As quoted by racingnews365, Leclerc assessed the critical aspects of last season's campaign:
"I've always been very vocal about my mistakes. There were two, especially this year, that were costly and where I lost points...
"The performance was probably there, but [there were] too many mistakes, [in terms of] reliability, strategy, also my mistakes cost some points.
"And on that, we need to get better. Max [Verstappen] has done a good job.
"Learning from mistakes, I think, is the main thing. But I also believe that whenever you are in the rhythm of good races, then that helps."
As he himself mentions, Leclerc is often extremely critical of his own performances, which can be seen from his post-race interviews.
The 24-year-old's errors from 2022 should not be overlooked entirely, with his crash in France proving something of a turning point in the Championship.
However, Ferrari's persistent errors and miscalculations resulted in a substantially greater loss of points than Leclerc's occasional errors.
Whilst there is little doubt that Leclerc can further elevate his performances, question marks remain surrounding Ferrari's competence and ability to learn from its mistakes.