'Stop crashing!' – Charles Leclerc slated for 'holding Ferrari back'

Martin Brundle says that Charles Leclerc’s inconsistency and mistakes are ‘holding him and Ferrari back’ as they prepare for their first home race of the season.

This time last year, Leclerc looked set to closely battle Max Verstappen for the F1 title, but reliability issues, strategy blunders and driver errors saw his challenge fall away before the halfway point of the season.

At the very least, 2022 appeared to be a good learning curve for the Monegasque driver and his team and would have given them hope that they could win a championship together in the future.

However, not only are Ferrari way off the pace of Red Bull, but Leclerc’s high-profile mistakes are still cropping up at nearly every grand prix.

He crashed at the end of the Azerbaijan Sprint shootout, though fortunately had already secured pole position, while last weekend in Miami he dramatically spun into the barriers during qualifying, which ultimately affected his confidence during the race, finishing seventh – nearly 53 seconds behind winner Verstappen.

With Red Bull dominating, the best that Leclerc can aim for at the moment is third in the standings but after five races he is seventh, with rivals Fernando Alonso, Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, as well as teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. all ahead of him.

Regardless of his car’s performance, much better is expected of the 25-year-old, with Sky Sports pundit Brundle saying: ‘Ferrari are struggling for race pace and a distant fifth and seventh [in Miami] was a poor result for them.

Ferrari will be hoping for a much better result at the next race in Imola, Italy where it is believed that they will be bringing much needed upgrades in an attempt to close the gap to Red Bull.

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