Ralf Schumacher has hit out at Ferrari Formula 1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz for costly errors that have hampered the team’s points tally in 2023.
The Scuderia endured a tough weekend at the Miami Grand Prix which left them further behind Aston Martin and Mercedes in the race for second in the F1 constructors’ standings.
Ferrari have scored just 78 points from the opening five races of the season compared to the more than 100 they had after three events in 2022 and Schumacher has put some of the blame on the men behind the wheel.
“The car isn’t great, but it’s better than they say,” said Schumacher. “One driver misbrakes at the pit entrance, the other hardly ever finishes a fast lap without crashing.
“Frank Williams [Schumacher‘s ex-boss at Williams] would have stretched out my ears! The trend is just not good.”
Simple mistakes from Ferrari
Crashing once can sometimes be forgiven when drivers are pushing as hard as they are, especially in qualifying, but Leclerc broke a code at the Miami GP.
After spinning off and hitting the barriers at Turn 7 in FP2, the Monagasque driver then did it again in Q3 on Saturday and left him down in seventh on the grid.
Failing to learn from his mistakes has been a regular theme for Leclerc since he joined F1 in 2018 with crashes at crucial times costing him some very good results.
Sainz was not innocent either in the Sunshine State as he committed the cardinal sin of speeding into the pitlane.
He was slapped with a lenient five-second penalty as a result which became irrelevant due to his lack of speed.
The Prancing Horse have not built the rocketship Leclerc and Sainz want but they still have to hold up their end of the bargain much better than they are right now.
