Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said he is not worried about Max Verstappen leading 49 points over him in the championship after nine races.
Red Bull has won the last six races in a row, with Verstappen claiming five and his teammate Sergio Perez, who is second in the championship and three points ahead of Leclerc, taking one.
Leclerc started the season with two wins in three races and at one point had a 46-point lead over Verstappen, who had to retire twice in the opening three races of 2022.
However, the pendulum has gone the other way in recent races after reliability problems in Spain and Azerbaijan forced Leclerc to retire, a strategic blunder in Monaco that netted him victory. and a motor kick in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix saw him come in from behind the net. .
Leclerc has dropped 68 points from his main rival in the last four rounds, but asked if he is worried about Verstappen’s growing lead in the championship, the Ferrari driver said: “It’s motivating. It pushes me because of course I know the speed is in the car.
“I’m not worried, I’m just incredibly motivated to finally have a clean weekend and show that we’re here and we’re strong. So at Silverstone hopefully we can. do that.”
Leclerc said addressing reliability issues, which are believed to have cost him more than 50 points this year, will be key in the title fight.
“Well, we can see that apparently Red Bull has some problems today too [on Sergio Perez’s car]So yes, for sure reliability will be an important thing. But that’s what we needed whenever we had tougher weekends like this weekend, just to go and get some good points and that’s what we did today. “
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is optimistic that the new engine fitted to Leclerc’s cars in Canada will also be the driving force for upcoming races ahead of F1’s summer break in August.
“We limit damage starting from the rear [in Canada]and finishing fifth is still a good result in the race,” said Binotto. And now we have a new power unit for the next races and the four races before the summer break will be very important for him, for sure, where he can attack and let’s try to recover as many points as we can. “
