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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has described his 2022 Formula 1 season as both “amazing” and “super frustrating.”
Leclerc finished second in the championship, a result he secured only at the final race of the year after what turned out to be a close points battle with Sergio Perez.
By finishing second to Max Verstappen in Sunday’s race in Abu Dhabi, the Ferrari driver secured the spot in a competition he had led in the early part,
Leclerc proved rapid out of the box in 2022, winning two of the first three races, and going wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen on multiple occasions.
However, as the year wore on, his championship tilt was blunted through a combination of reliability issues, driver errors, and operational blunders by his team.
Even so, it marked a solid step forward for both driver and team after a trying two years.
“If I take a step back, considering from how far we come from last year, it’s an amazing step forward,” Leclerc observed.
“But obviously I cannot ignore our middle part of the season that has been super frustrating.
‘We went from leading the championship with quite a bit of points to being behind by quite a lot of points, and that was a frustrating part of the season.
“All in all, we just need to take all the mistakes that we’ve done this year and try to improve for next year.”
Ferrari finished fourth in last year’s constructors’ championship, progressing to second in 2022.
For a time, it headed that competition before being overhauled by Red Bull, and only narrowly avoided losing out to the resurgent Mercedes in the latter part of the year too.
Despite that progress, that are called for team boss Mattia Binotto to be sacked, with some pinning the blame for Ferrari’s near miss on the Italian.
While the head of the Prancing Horse does bear responsibility for its performances, blaming him for its failure to secure a title while ignoring the improvements the operation has made in quick order is somewhat one-eyed.
“We really did some step forwards in terms of strategy and the way we have been taking decisions recently,” noted Leclerc, an indication that lessons were being learned and processes refined internally throughout the year.
“In the last few races, unfortunately, it was a bit more difficult to show it because the pace is not as good as the beginning of the season.
“But I’m confident that in terms of pace, we will manage to catch Red Bull back next year.”
Ferrari has not won a world championship since Kimi Raikkonen’s success in 2007, though Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, and now Leclerc all mounted challenges at points for the Scuderia.
