Charles Leclerc makes ‘worse than a nightmare’ admission as recent form dip continues

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Charles Leclerc admitted the last few races have felt like “worse than a nightmare” for him, after his form has appeared to stall in recent rounds.

The Ferrari driver won the Monaco Grand Prix in fine fashion in May but has struggled by comparison since, finishing fifth in Spain, 11th in Austria and a distant 14th at Silverstone after gambling on the wrong strategy in changing conditions.

Charles Leclerc reflects on ‘worse than a nightmare’ run of form

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

With early rain falling during the British Grand Prix, Leclerc was one of several drivers, including Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to move to intermediate tyres in the early part of the race, but that ultimately proved to be the incorrect call as the track was still ultimately dry enough for slicks – albeit with slippery patches of the circuit.

As no further rain came in that part of the race, the Ferrari driver continued to lose time lap on lap and fell out of points contention rapidly, ending the race a lap down and well out of the points when the race finished.

Reflecting on his strategy to pit early after the race, he told media including PlanetF1.com: “It was clearly the wrong one.

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“I will look back into it, obviously, with the decision with the message I got and the information I had in the car, I felt like it was the right one.

“It was raining quite a lot in T15. I was told that in this lap, the rain was going to be very heavy, so I stopped to try and anticipate. However, the rain came eight or nine laps later.

“So that was obviously the end of our race from that moment on. [It] was very frustrating, another weekend to forget and it starts to be a lot.”

Reflecting on his current run, Leclerc admitted that he hopes to find a way back to form sooner rather than later, without an appropriate way of putting into words what has not been quite right of late for him.

“It’s very hard,” he said. “I mean, I don’t really have the words to explain it, but it’s been four races that it’s been worse than a nightmare, so I hope we can come back soon.

“It’s very difficult to pick up positives on days like this. I just want to go back with the team, [and asl] that we analyse the way we are making those decisions on my side, and why were we on the wrong side today.”

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