Charles Leclerc took responsibility for the crash which put him out of the French Grand Prix while he was leading.
The Ferrari driver crashed out of the French Grand Prix on the 18th lap of the race, having led all the way since the start. He spun off at the exit of the double right-hander Beausset.
He was heard shouting on his radio in frustration after his crash. “I didn’t know I left my radio on,” he told media including RaceFans afterwards. “But obviously it’s extremely frustrating.
“I feel like I’m performing at probably the highest level of my career since the beginning of the season. But there’s no point of performing at a very high level if then I do those mistakes.”
Leclerc said he will count the cost of his driving errors at the end of the season. “I think there are 32 points in overall – 25 today, I think it was likely that we were going to win this race because we were fast, and seven in Imola with my mistake.
“So at the end of the year we will count back and if there are 32 points missing then I know it’s coming from me and I did not deserve to win the championship. But for the second half of the season I need to get on top of those things if I want to be a world championship.”
After spinning through the asphalt run-off, Leclerc went nose-first into a barrier at the exit of the corner. He told his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros he was having difficulty releasing the throttle.
However he confirmed afterwards he had not experienced a repeat of the throttle problem he encountered in Austria.
“No, it’s been a very tricky balance all weekend. I like to have oversteer but whenever there is heat it makes it very difficult to be consistent. I have not been very consistent and I paid the price of doing one big mistake during the race.”
He tried unsuccessfully to extract his car from the barrier after his crash. “I couldn’t reverse which was a shame because then I saw the car and the car was actually not too damaged. We could still run.
“But this is a detail. First of all I need to not put cars in the wall and then they should work better.”
Leclerc’s radio messages after his crash
| Marcos Padros | Are you okay? |
| Leclerc | I cannot go off throttle |
| Marcos Padros | Eight-second pause Now it’s zero percent. |
| Leclerc | No! |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2022 French Grand Prix
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…