Should We Be Worried About This? 

It's hard for his team to ruin a one lap contests but when there are 70 laps then Ferrari will take every opportunity they can get

The problem that has scandalously not been talked about enough, is the horrific leadership at Ferrari since the death of Sergio Marchionne. John Elkann has been dragging this team down a cliff since the former’s death, in the same way that Peter Ward dragged Lotus down after Colin Chapman’s death. The difference being that Lotus was struggling financially, and would collapse only a decade afterwards, so Warr couldn’t do much to salvage the team. Elkann, on the other hand, is only there because of nepotism and his relationship to Gianni Agnelli. In a world where ego has trumped logic at the Scuderia, I cannot see them winning any form of championship anytime soon, (10 years at least probably, lol) and that’s being generous. Leclerc should just say, fuck it, and leave this team to self-destruct. With how many top drivers this team has failed over the years, I would be genuinely shocked if any top driver will be willing to join this team. In the end, Ferrari wholeheartedly deserve it for their tradition of being such a tragic waste of money, resources, and talent. A crying shame, to say the least.

I think the thing everyone should be worrying about is when Ferrari is gonna stop playing around and actually look at their management with a logical mindset instead of living in a dream where they think everything they are doing is correct. Charles has been exceptional for Ferrari since 2019, and they’ve consistently robbed him of wins through a multitude of reliability failures, some bad strategies, and obviously sometimes his own mistakes. I also think the Ferrari car is solely to blame for the tire wear issues. Sainz has a much smoother driving style and yet suffers from some of the same issues consistently. Silverstone was a prime example of this where they nearly (and should’ve) lost a race win to Mercedes because of how bad their tire wear is. Monza as well, I mean they couldn’t keep up with Max who had older tires and then they eventually were starting to lose a bit of time by the end of the race. It’s insane how they have this issue and cannot fix it still.

I think the phrase used is merchant. That aside excellent video as always. Can't help feel sorry for Charles. Not winning races on Sunday when you're the fastest on Saturday must hurt.

Currently, Leclerc and Verstappen both have gotten 18 poles, which I think is an interesting statistic.

In my opinion that statistic perfectly shows what's happening in Ferrari. In qualifying the perfect lap is entirely in the hands of the driver. Of course the driver depends on the team to setup the car well but there is no strategy for the perfect lap. The perfect lap comes entirely from the talent of said driver. But a race win is dependent on both. Both the talent of the driver and the ability of the team to make a race wining strategy. Charles shows his talent in qualifying when the lap depends on him but then when it comes to the race he's basically always let down because of his team and you can't win races simply on talent.

Another thing to consider is also the fact that this is probably Charles's first attempt at a proper title challenge. Sure he's made mistakes and at times the team lets him down with reliability issues, but that's a common thing when you consider title contenders at the past also had the same kind of problem he has right now What Charles and Ferrari need right now is a proper reset and a refreshed championship contending mentality for next season. Regardless of how this season ends, it's pretty clear to say that the Scuderia still needs to keep their heads together and try to get more feedback from their drivers in order to build that momentum coming into 2023

It’s not a problem with Leclerc at all, I wouldn’t even say that poor strategy has done them in this season, the fact of the matter is the RB18 is just a better car. Max can get better race pace out of it without sacrificing tyre wear, Leclerc has to choose between tyre wear or performance. Hopefully Ferrari can make a good car and slow it down on the horrible strategy calls Next Year™

There's always next year. Will they be title contenders till the end of the season or not? I can't take anymore disappointment Ferrari!

There's also the problem of Ferrari being too focused on quali speed instead of race pace. Max always sets his car up for race pace, even if it means not getting pole. I recall him once saying something along the lines of "There's no point in having the fastest car over 1 lap when it's not the fastest over a race distance.". Being the fastest over a race distance also includes managing tire wear.

The problem with Ferrari is the same problem that brought down big name teams like Toyota, stubbornness. Their management and work culture clearly aren't compatible with being a competitive F1 team, which can be seen this season and in others where Ferrari start with a strong car but fall off by the end of the season. Also considering how Seb did at Ferrari and you get the picture that they can't manage their drivers or mid-season development. Hopefully something changes but they need to rip up however they're doing things now and start over.

The main problem is management. When your team principal says they are not looking to win the championship you can’t expect your team to give it their all

I still think he's ready for a title fight, any criticism went away after JAPAN GP, looking at Ferrari tyres. Sadly can't say the same for Ferrari itself

Indeed... Ayrton Senna statistics regarding pole positions 'ratio' versus Grand Prix victories up to 1987 were quite similar... 1985 and 1986... Ayrton got many pole positions... but only 4 victories...

Our race pace is poor due to how the car is configured. This year being able to warm the tyres is more important than ever since the tyre blankets are limited to 60 C. Ferrari warms tyres better than any other car meaning we have that more grip than others in qualy. This has the downside that in the race we have an extreme degradation. Compare the mercedes where the car struggles to warm the tyres but we´ve seen hamilton or russel go on long stints without having a massive pace dropoff.

It’s very easy. Leclerc overachieves on a saturday which makes him look bad on a sunday. While on a sunday, Leclerc finishes where he should finish in that car. Whitout Leclerc Ferrari would have had 1 pole and 1 win this season.

Aside from the tyre deg issue, if Charles had faith in the Ferrari team, like how Max does with RB or Lewis did with Merc, then he wouldn't need to keep over-driving the car. An unfortunate consequence of being in that team. I think he's been very unfortunate with circumstances that he lost so many "shoulda been" wins. Probably had at least 5 lost due to reliability. Also, in Austria, Ferrari were the ones with better tyre deg than RB, so they can do it.

Honestly no matter who’s driving the Ferrari, they will always bottle it. Many years of repeating the same mistakes with the same people, no chance.

leclerc is very, very good on sundays. the fact that even sainz, who's know for being easy on the tyres, has struggled with them in multiple races this season, shows you that the car is far more responsible for these tyre problems than leclerc

The big issue for Ferrrari is that they can’t develop a car during the season. This season i very similar to the 2017& and especially the 2018 season were they start the season strong but can’t keep up in the development race. And on top there inability to develop a car they make a lot o mistakes at the track. You should make a video comparing Ferraris titele bids in 2017 & 18 to 2022 they would look pretty similar. Just as they learned nothing from those years typically ferrari

Great edit! 👍 I think Ferrari is a team that crashes the spirit of its drivers. Vettel in German GP 2018. Leclerc in French GP this year. 😭

This guy is a champion. He will fix this. Look at Max. He developed to be a champion because he is a champion

I think its a car related issue. In 2019 seb also struggled from deg. And in the first part of 2022 deg wasnt really an issue

JPM's Pole-Win statistic is a testament to how many times his BMW engine exploded

Some people talk about Leclerc as if he was a multiple worldchampion when he only has 5 wins.. A lot to prove. A lot to improve.

Whats interesting tho is that the way the Ferrari is described as pointy, makes me wonder how Max would perform in the Ferrari as we know he loves a pointy car!

Valterri’s issue is not a mental one, he just lacked the race pace. Few drivers can drive very quickly whilst managing the tires well - look at how many times verstappen has qualified poorly but has such immense race pace that he just breezes past everyone I think people place too much emphasis on what they think is the mental aspect of the sport. In reality, drivers with “poor mentality” are there because they’re not performing, which affects their confidence. Performance affects mentality, not the other way round. Look at lando Norris - he openly admits to having mental health struggles but his performances has boosted his mental strength, because he has confidence in himself

Sharl’s more a Saturday man than the Saturday man himself these days

This year's Ferrari seems a bit like the Mercedes W04 from 2013 which was really quick in qualifying but was too rough with the tyres and couldn't keep up in the race. I can't really see a logical reason why someone would be fast over one lap consistently but somehow slow on multiple laps.

Two problems could be identified in the first half of the season: strategy and reliability which both prevented Charles from winning more than once. In the second half, tire wear was added. I think it's mostly the car here because wear and tear wasn't that big of a problem in the first half. In Australia, the car has even had much less degradation than the Red Bull. The TD39 seems to have changed something here and narrowed the operation window for the Ferrari. If Ferrari knows about the problems, it can be fixed for 2023. Charles can only make sure that he doesn't always just push and also allows the tires a slow introduction. The new Pirelli 2023 tires could help with that too, as they're supposed to be sturdier, that could help the tire eaters. When this is solved, Charles ratio should get better, it is not that he can't win, he showed that 5x already but most of the time the Ferrari is slower on the long run while faster over one lap. Taking this into account, and also looking at Charles' extraordinary strength on one lap, the bad ratio is explainable.

Good video and an interesting issue. I think Charles is the real deal. I think he has two problems that he is fighting - the first is the speed of Max in that Red Bull. That combo really is too quick and Charles has to push and push to give himself the sniff of a chance. The second issue is Sainz as his team mate. Charles is quicker and a better racer than Carlos but Carlos is trying to prove otherwise and Ferrari haven’t quite got the message yet that Carlos is Number 2 and Charles is Number 1 and doesn’t need all the aggro of having constantly to prove he is the quicker driver. Once that is sorted out Charles will be in a similar position to Max and Lewis of having all the support for him. Charles will be up to it but will Ferrari? By the way the phrase would be Pole Merchant not Pole Merchand as Merchand doesn’t mean anything. Thanks again for a video that needed making.

The word Merchant has being 1 of the funniest words in the F1 meme community for some while

Reminds me of 2002 when Montoya was winning all those poles, yet Schumacher was winning all the races. Williams BMW had great 1 lap pace, but the Ferraris had better race pace.

Charles being a self critical driver will definitely be worried and make adjustments, but Ferrari is the one that really needs to put their heads down under the microscope. IMO*

I used to think my life is miserable most of the time, then I remember Scuderia Ferrari still exists

Ferrari also screwed Leclerc when they choose to not tell Sainz that he is the #2 driver (Sainz took away point from Leclerc when his teammate was chasing Max in the Driver's title race); Ferrari also had reliability issues which cost Leclerc in the Title chase with Max; Leclerc is too nice of a driver who always is a nice person

hes a very fast qualifier not a bad racer...add to that a team that builds cars im the hybrid era for one lap pace only

I just don't see where people are coming from when they go around claiming that Leclerc just has no race pace, looking at this season alone, his race pace has never been lacking against his main marker, which is Carlos in the same car. Charles has always had the pace this season to fight for the top 3, it's just different events prevented him from finishing there such as reliability, strategy etc.

I don't understand why you disregarded 2019 it's a good sample size with a competitive car, I don't think if it was legal or not matters to the question you're asking

If you think Charles race pace is bad go watch F2 Bahrain 2017 it is an absolutely perfect drive and one of the best ever imo

This is the new "Kimi can't drive the car without blowing up his engine".

I think this more of a Ferrari problem rather than a Leclerc problem. As you mentioned, Leclerc drives phenomenal, correcting mid-corner, letting the car slide across the track to gain time and improve his (mini)sectors. His style very much reminds me of how Verstappen handles his car. However, in contrast to the Ferrari, the RedBull is very loose and fickle and therefore reliant on a driver that knows how to correct it. Just like Leclerc does. I think he would fit better at RedBull than at Ferrari.

You forgot to mention that Bottas often took team orders to let hanglulton pass. He could have had a lot more wins from pole!

Max is just head and shoulder above the rest this season.. No one comes close.

Having watched the Singapore GP live at turn 13, I can see Ferrari's problem with their tyres. Charles just struggled to put down power on the exit of slower corner. Fast and medium corners aren't so much of a problem.

To be fair to Charles, the bulk of those Pole Positions have been in 2022, and their 2022 car is a great qualifier but just not as competitive as the Red Bull over a race distance. That alone significantly changes the argument being made.

Oh thanks, I was always curious about the wins from pole position stat... To be fair, this year's cars are different, as in, track position isn't as important because following a car is much easier now, and since cars are more draggy than they were last year, the combination of slip stream + DRS is much better than any year before. If you think about it, the car who is in front theoretically should have a slower pace than the car behind, that's why Red Bull aren't hitting over themselves for not winning more poles.

i think the valtteri comparison was a bit harsh as he was the second driver for Mercedes and charles is ferraris current number 1

Going to watch later but the answer is yes but because of Ferrari's incompetence.

high downforce means more wear the tyres; tyre wear also depends on the drivers TBH....

Feels like Ferrari's speed is almost always overshadowed by ultimately being on the team or the drivers at this point. It's like the car just burns through all its tires just to keep up in a race and then all of a sudden both drivers are forced to conserve pace so much in the end that it stops them from being competitive as Red Bull. Hopefullt they can fix these issues. That long list of poles not becoming wins is a pretty bad record to have, and pretty much is the icing on the cake on how this year was supposed to be Ferrari's year and how they binned it so badly instead.

The biggest reason for the 18/5 ratio is probably the fault of Ferrari, wrong calculations and bad pitstops aswell. But Leclerc also sometimes makes his own mistakes under high pressure, something you wouldnt see that much with Hamilton or Verstappen.

Nope, it shows that when sheer driving skill is required most over one breakneck lap, he's as good as it gets. That Baku 2021 pole was sensational, talk about outperforming a car around a specific track.

In the pre-season testing there were talks from pundits how Max has changed his driving style to a smooth, less acrobatic style, while Charles is still doing the same style Max was last year. So my guess is that playing smooth this year is the better thing to do.

11:17 I think you totally missed the point. They know what's causing tyre ware. DT39 killed their performance, but the real problem is the brake cooling system: at the beginning of the championship they didn't suffer so much from it because temperatures were lower. Both of these problems couldn't be fixed because of budget cap, while RedBull kept bringing updates every race (pretty suspicious if you ask me). That's why it's just wrong and insulting that RedBull could breach the budget cap last year (and this year too?) and FIA is acting like this is not a big deal.

Leclerc is not a Pole Merchand. But the problem is that the ferrari car is terrible in race pace compared to qualifying

I don't think we should be worried about this yet, for example, Senna had similar statistics early in his career with pole to win conversion, and of course I'm not putting the two on the same level, I'm just pointing out that it's far too early to judge Charles' career. This is only Charles' 2nd season in a car that is capable of winning. It's way too early to start questioning these things, because he's really only just started in terms of fighting at the front. Also Charles has learned to manage his tyres very well, it used to be his weakness. But if the car is loose at the rear, as the Ferrari is, especially since Spa, then there's not much a driver can do if the only way to drive it is to hang it out a little bit to control the oversteer/prevent understeer. Great analysis as always however, good points brought up.

i think leclerc is unbelievably fast on a single lap, the best of all the actual grid... but in races he struggle for the limits of his car (tyres degradation is too high compared to mercedes and red bull, and reliability) and the limits of his box (montecarlo, silverstone, hungary just this year)... cause in terms of driver he did the same number of mistakes as max: 2! charles in imola and paul ricard, max spain and hungary, the only difference is the result of the error that one can attribute to pure luck

They have a car that's fast in qualifying trim on light fuel. Charles has always been fast over one lap. The "Flex Floor" rule effected Ferrari, it didn't effect RBR. Also, Ferrari has problems running a race, Red Bull and MV don't. That translates to Red Bull dominance. Red Bull didn't get a whole lot faster, everyone else got slower.

I haven't noticed enough of Leclerc's steering inputs, however, if the, as you said, microcorrections are anything to go by, that's very similar to Schumacher's style, however, the 2000's Ferraris had very strong rear balance and were designed around The Michael. Not saying they're on the same league, though.

I think it really shows the state of the team, the strategies and the politics. The car is fine, the car is really fast but the team really fucks up when it comes to racing and doesnt seem to understand how to react to other teams strategies

What about Sainz tire wear?

One way to solve it put Charles in a Mercedes or redbull he'll have a better conversion rate. Still highly rate Charles and think he could challenge for championship if ferrari can sort themselves out.

They have more tyre wear because they are required to gain time in corners. Red bull doesn't need to push as much because they can regain time on the straights. Speed is king. If the car behind cannot overtake on the straights

Leclerc reminds me Mika Hakkinen in 1999. Many pole positions, but reliability and a couple of mistakes just like Imola kill his season. If Lewis don't stay in Mercedes after 2023, Charles would like to replace him.

charles was robed of like 5-6 wins dew to relliability issues and bad strategies so how is his problem not getting the wins he had to? in the first half of the season ferrari was clearly the faster car on 80% of the races but could not convert to wins because of their own problems. and when charles sees his team not taking responsibility for their mistakes he knows he has to make this up with driving more aggresively and thats why i think he made some mistakes two. he really loves ferrari and he is a very kind person as it seems and thats why he hasnt exploded on them still but if next year his own team steals the world chanpionship from him again i dont know if we can recover from that

Anyone else find it weird the way the mechanic grabs Charles here at 10:53. Lol

F1 is all about race pace and tire preservation thru management of tires.

Can u analyse all the races once this season 2022 completes and see if its Ferrari's reliability issue or bad luck or Charles Leclerc himself responsible for the debacle Ferrari or rather Charles faced, especially during the later part of the season.

No... not worried about that... My worries are about having Binotto and Mekies leading the team... that's Scuderia flaw...

I see Aldas I click

Amazing videos as always

Yes. I haven't seen the video yet, but based on the thumbnail, whatever it is: Yes.

He has only 4 pole positions less than Alonso. But Alonso has 32 race victories

This is the thing, while Max and Charles are similar talents, Max is so much more superior because of experience in races. Max has had a podium car for 6 years, Charles only 2. This is Charles first title contender. It’s not long ago the whole ‘Crashtappen’ meme was a thing. Give Charles some time, he’ll be okay

I won't be so sure, that Boats was driving "same" car as Lewis. Just like in RB. I will debate that 2nd driver doesn't have the same car. And I think that, that was a reason why Riciardo left Red Bull

Adrian Newey having a field day designing these new regulation ground effect cars which was his breakfast lunch and dinner back in the day.

The problem is really strategy and reliability issues in terms of the drivers Charles is for sure the number one he’s consistently faster then Carlos but does sometimes make his own mistakes and in terms of Sainz he doesn’t have the outright speed to consistently beat Charles but he’s quick enough to put pace him and out race him from time to time and he’s usually much better in the races then Charles sometimes he can actually over rule Ferraris strategy when he can tell what’s the right tyre or the right time to pit which Leclerc can but doesn’t do. So the drivers aren’t too much of a concern but Ferraris leadership , strategy and reliability issues are happening too often which is letting the team itself down and Mattia doesn’t own up when the team has made a mistake even nico rosberg was right when he said “even f2 and f3 teams make better strategy decisions” so until Ferrari get these issues sorted they will never be able to contend for championships.

If you take out the guys with one pole, one win, Max has a percentage of over 72% which is the highest of all.

Leclerc has to overdrive the car to get it to perform. Ultimately it's the car and probably the tradeoff between downforce and speed.

Leclerc's biggest problem is that his driving style is to ride the curbs as much as possible. Sure it is fast but it wears the car and down, and puts him in a position to have accidents for smaller mistakes. This is why Monaco has generally been a disaster for him

leclerc could be the new montoya if the team don t help him to win the champ...

Yes

I'm a Ferrari fan, but Leclerc has to go, he's just wasting his talent with the 🤡 in our team.

Thing about bottas that stinks so much is he looses five spots or more usually before the first lap is completed. Sometimes before the first turn.

I once saw a tweet saying Leclercs is gonna retire with 135 poles and 14 wins and I think it couldn't desecribe this season better.

yes

Merchant not Merchand

Two things: 1. Charles needs to be more assertive than he was last season entering 2023. If he can't be more than assertive, then there's nothing in this world that Ferrari can do but to let him and Carlos duke it out on track. He needs to show to Ferrari that he IS the guy and he should be brave enough to tell his team that Carlos will always play second fiddle to him since he is the chosen one to don the Scarlet Reds of Maranello. 2. Ferrari needs to fix their shit together both from the inside and out. They cannot fuck their drivers in terms of track planning, internal management, car development and engineering, driver priority, and overall team chemistry. If they cannot let Charles know that he is being taken cared of and not competing against his teammate for points.

I think some of Charles not winning from pole is Ferrari and their horrendous strategy calls. And well Charles binned a couple of times. Let’s call it 70/30.

tbh i think it is prolly charles just overdriving the car at this point

If every car Charles has driven has problems with tire wear… maybe it’s time to address his ability to save tire?

Yes we should be worried but not for him, for Ferrari. If the engine didn't explode or have shit strategies, that race win number would be a lot higher

Leclerc ain’t perfect, but he’s very talented and will likely grow. Ferrari have let him down countless times and I think he should push for a move to Mercedes when his current contract runs out.

As a Leclerc fan I'd rather see him start on pole every race. I think it will always mean a higher chance of victory, or at least he will be in the race for the win. If he ends his career with 60 plus pole positions it will be no laughing matter.

I feel this issue is magnified with the need of the community to magnify every little thing Ferrari does wrong for memes Of course you can't deny tyre wear nor charles being sometimes too agressive But in all honesty if you go race by race where he took pole and didn't win the only one where there's not a good enough reason to explain it is France And what's worse is that now there's loads of people saying Leclerc's shit/overrated, etc instead of just analysing things how they are

Ferrari messing up pitstops, bad calls from the pit wall, engine blowouts and verstappen just being consistent as hell is why this keeps happening

Fr 💀 almost all the time in career mode for me Charles always gets pole but never wins 😂

For Valtteri you forgot to mention “Valtteri it’s James”……. I mean it even became a meme. I love the way everyone mentions Ferraris way to circumvent the rules but nobody ever mentions how Mercedes were so fast with their reintroduction of oil burning, the FIA had to step in and reduce the amount of oil available but Mercedes were allowed to burn more oil as the rules only effected new engines that were introduced, hence their superior straight line speed. The drivers do very little to develop the car, they can specify stiffness, damping, wing angles, basic limited adjustments. If it was like you say about great drivers being able to work with the team and develop a car, how is it Hamilton, the most successful driver of all time and George Robot-ussell can’t improve their current car? LeClercs problems are mainly from Ferraris clownery, there’s only so much a driver can do when he’s racing against the entire grid and his own team is sabotaging his efforts. If Ferrari had a competent team like red bull or Mercedes the drivers championship would still be on.

It's unfortunate that Max's brilliance is shadowing his performance. Max is Good, forget 2022 season. 2021 he showed us what he can do to Hamilton in his supposedly faster car.