(Baku) Charles Leclerc became the first driver in Formula 1 history to win in two qualifying sessions during the same weekend.
He didn’t even come close to winning every race — that sums up his career story.
Leclerc has a knack for driving a flawed car beyond the means – like this season’s Ferrari – and he manages to clock particularly fast lap times. However, he was unable to keep pace with the Red Bull team riders as much in Saturday’s sprint race as Sunday’s Grand Prix in Baku.
He finished second in the sprint and third in the main race, which still revives Leclerc’s 2023 season. He had to give up in two of the first three events of the campaign.
“We got closer (to Red Bull), maybe a bit, but our race pace is still a long way off and I even think Aston Martin is even faster than us in the race,” Leclerc said Sunday. I can take a few risks on a lap or two, but in a 51-lap race there’s not much more we can do. »
Leclerc has now taken the lead 19 times in qualifying, ruling out the session ahead of Saturday’s sprint. He only has five wins to his name. This clashes with the results of Max Verstappen, who took the lead 22 times but won 37 races and two drivers’ championships.
The last time Leclerc converted his lead position into a race win was in April 2022 at the Australian Grand Prix. He has since qualified eight more times in the top position, including four in a row midway through the 2022 season, but won only once when he started second in Austria before overtaking Verstappen.
F1 has had its fair share of qualifying specialists throughout its history and many drivers have been unlucky in races. During the 1980s, René Arnoux started 18 times, but won only seven times, often due to the unreliability of the Renault engine.
Different factors can explain the lack of victories in Leclerc’s record, whether it is the performance of his Ferrari or its lack of reliability, tactical errors, blunders in the pits or even pilot errors during the race.
When will Leclerc’s next victory come? He himself cannot predict it.
“There’s still a lot of work to do to improve our race speed,” he said. I think we tried everything. However, we are not fast enough yet. »
