Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc believes he can still claim the 2022 F1 Drivers’ Championship, despite trailing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 80 points with nine races in the season left to go.
Despite having arguably the best car on the grid, Ferrari has suffered from poor reliability and a series of bad strategy calls that has seen both them and star driver Leclerc fall significantly behind Red Bull and Verstappen in the fight for the constructors’ and driver’s championships.
The Monegasque driver though is refusing to throw in the towel believing he can still claim the championship, jokingly stating that the goal would be to win nine races on the trot.
“I think we’ll take it one by one as a team. But for sure we need to try and maximise every opportunity that we have ahead,” Leclerc stated.
“I still believe in the championship of course it’s going to be a very difficult challenge but I will believe in it until the very end. It’s maybe easier to say than to do [winning nine races in a row] it but I’ll give it my best.”
Leclerc hails special Spa
The Spa-Francorchamps race circuit holds a special place in Leclerc’s heart with the Monegasque driver claiming his first victory in F1 at the venue in 2019. The Ferrari driver will be looking to repeat his previous success at the race track that also claimed the life of his friend and F1 hopeful Anthoine Hubert during the same weekend.
“It is a very special track for me obviously I think for every driver the first victories is very special,” Leclerc stated.
“I got it here in very strange conditions obviously with what happened on the Saturday with Antoine [Hubert] but it’s a track I really enjoy driving on all the time and hopefully we can get a strong result this weekend.”
