Honda explain Charles Leclerc gap to Max Verstappen as Ferrari have themselves to blame

Max Verstappen makes subtle dig at Lewis Hamilton in April

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Red Bull are leading the championship because they “solved” their early season reliability issues compared to Ferrari, according to Honda boss Yasuaki Asaki. Asaki also claimed Red Bull are “making fewer mistakes” than Ferrari which has proven vital to Max Verstappen’s success.

It leaves Leclerc over three race victories behind Verstappen in the points standings at the summer break. Red Bull have also opened up a 97-point advantage over Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.

Asaki explained: “Red Bull are making fewer mistakes than Ferrari at the moment. The difference in points between the two teams is greater than our true strength. We are now in a position where we are fighting for both championships, so we keep fighting.

“We had some problems at the start of the season, but we solved them. I think that’s why we are where we are today.” Ferrari appeared to have the faster car over the first handful of races and capitalised on Red Bull’s misfortune.

Victories for Charles Leclerc in two of the first three races, coupled with retirements for Max Verstappen, saw the Monegasque open up a commanding 46-point advantage over the Dutchman.

However, the tide then started to turn as Ferrari blew their early advantage in a nightmare handful of races. Leclerc threw away seven points after a mistake at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. This was followed by strategy errors in Monaco and then mechanical failures in Spain and Azerbaijan.

Grid penalties afflicted Leclerc in Canada while more strategy woes cost him a chance of victory at Silverstone. Leclerc then crashed out of the lead at the French Grand Prix, ruining his chance to cut the gap to just over 40 points.

Red Bull boss Helmut Marko admits the team cannot relax despite their healthy championship lead. He said it was possible Ferrari could win the next nine races if they were to completely cut out their errors.

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Marko stressed the team’s advantage was down to Ferrari “doing pretty much everything wrong” so far this season. Leclerc says Ferrari have not managed to maximise their potential after a range of errors this season.

However, he revealed the team were doing everything they could to cut out the issues and get back to challenging over the second part of the season. He said: “Let’s say that we know we need to work on that. We want to do absolutely everything to get better in every single thing we do.

“And obviously looking at the first part of this season, there have been some strategy problems, there have been some reliability problems and there have been driving mistakes. On reliability and strategy, we are working extremely hard to get better.”

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