When Charles Leclerc joined Ferrari for the 2019 Formula 1 season, he became the center of the team almost instantly. The attention directed toward him came amid an abundance of talent and potential that eventually ended up pushing Sebastian Vettel out of the team.
Deemed a future world champion, Leclerc has been unable to come close to that achievement thus far. While a lot of the underachievement has been due to bad luck, a good amount can be attributed to poor strategy at Ferrari.
Messing up strategy has become so common at Ferrari and has cost them several high-placing results. Hope for Leclerc achieving success at Ferrari seems to be slowly dying, and it may be only a matter of time before the Monegasque driver gives up on his team.
Leclerc deserves some blame as well
The public has come to view Ferrari as the laughingstock of Formula 1. The team have cost Leclerc podium finishes and even some wins. However, the difference between him and drivers such Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and even Carlos Sainz Jr. is that these drivers are willing to make their own strategic decisions.
After all these years with Ferrari, the 27-year-old has struggled through a series of strategies. Yet after all of these failures, Leclerc still will not do what is necessary to prevent any mishaps from happening again. Whether he grows the courage to go against his race engineer is largely up to him.
What happened this past weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix was yet another example of a botched strategy. Leclerc opted for plan C, which was a one-stop strategy, while the team practically ignored his remarks and went for plan B, which was a two-stop strategy. Leclerc went along with it anyway, and it cost him.
In the past, we saw Sainz go against some at Ferrari and make his own decisions. As a result, he reaped the successes in the form of wins. If Leclerc wants to win a world championship at Ferrari, he has to take it upon himself to control his chances at some point.