Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has reiterated the importance of closing the points gap to Max Verstappen in the remaining four races before the summer break, starting with the 2022 British Grand Prix.
Victory at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix in April left Leclerc 46 points ahead of Red Bull‘s Verstappen in the Driver Standings but the Monegasque has failed to win a race since and has missed out on the podium in the last four races, garnering just 22 points.
Ahead of the 2022 British Grand Prix, Leclerc‘s slipped to 49 points behind the Dutchman thanks to reliability problems and an engine penalty the previous round at Montreal.
“It’s obviously important I think the next four races will be very important,” Leclerc told the press, when asked if this weekend is make-or-break for his title chances.
“Just before the summer break to go in the holidays with four good races will be great.
“So now we need to focus on ourselves, I think performance is there – if we’ve got clean weekends, I’m pretty sure the results will follow.”
After Silverstone, the Formula 1 circus visits Austria, France and Hungary before the summer break, if Leclerc and Verstappen finished one-two in each of those races the gap could close to as little as 17 points.
Confident Verstappen
Verstappen‘s father Jos said this week he was confident in Max’s chances of winning in Britain for a second time, after the Red Bull man has tasted victory in five of the last six races so far in 2022.
But Leclerc certainly comes into the weekend with good recent form at Silverstone, having led nearly the whole race in 2021 after Hamilton and Verstappen collided to set both drivers back.
That put Leclerc into a lead he’d keep until Lap 50 when he was passed by the Brit, but ultimately he held on to second to claim his third successive British Grand Prix podium.
“I love it here, I love the track, I love fast corners in general,” Leclerc added.
“So I’m really looking forward to this weekend. This year we’ve got a bit more of a competitive car compared to the last times we came here so hopefully we can have a clean weekend finally.
“Because since Miami it’s not been great, so hopefully we can get back on track and get back to it. I fully trust the team to get on top of these things as quickly as it can be done.”
