Leclerc: "If I miss out on the title by 32 points, I know who to blame"
- GPblog.com
Charles Leclerc threw away a possible victory at the French Grand Prix with what looked like a driver error. His rival, Max Verstappen, took the win and consequently lost out on the championship. Leclerc knows who to blame if he does not take the title this year.
Leclerc was at the front of the race and had just parried the initial attacks from Verstappen. Without the pressure of an attacking driver behind him, the Monegasque lost the rear of his car in the corner and slid into the wall. Over the radio, Leclerc immediately shouted something about problems with his accelerator, referring to the problems he had in the closing stages of the race in Austria. After getting out of the car and appearing in front of the cameras later, Leclerc changed his story: "It was a mistake.
One person guilty if Leclerc does not win title
Not much more became clear from his short answer, but in the meantime, we can say that it was a driver error on the part of the Ferrari driver. Team boss Mattia Binotto has already said that it was a real mistake, which Leclerc will probably learn a lot from. The driver admitted his own mistake to Sky Italia: "The reverse gear didn't work once at the barriers, but I don't want to shift the focus to that. I can't make these mistakes, no need to be at this level if I make mistakes like that."
Leclerc seems to admit that losing 25 points against rival Verstappen hurt him a lot and seems to blame himself heavily: "If I lose by 32 points (referring to this error and Imola) I will know whose fault it is. There are no excuses. I yelled, I didn't think the radio was on but that's life."