Having made a mistake in France last Sunday, the Monegasque driver must win the Hungarian GP so as not to let the Dutchman Max Verstappen escape the championship for good.
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Now or never. On the occasion of the last F1 Grand Prix before the summer break, in Hungary, where testing begins on Friday July 29, Charles Leclerc finds himself forced to win in order to hope to stay in touch in the driver classification, a week after his retirement at Le Castellet when he was leading the race. “I have to take over if I want to be world champion“, he confided, Thursday, July 28.
The Monegasque knows he lost big in France due to pilot error. Between engine failures, questionable strategic decisions or errors by Leclerc or his teammate Carlos Sainz, the Scuderia accumulates hitches after the first two rounds of the championship where the two red single-seaters finished on the podium. Today the Scuderia has had the most retirements – seven – since the start of the championship.
If he remains second in the championship, Leclerc is now relegated to 63 points behind the Red Bull of Verstappen, an easy winner on the Castellet route. Worse, after twelve rounds contested since March, Leclerc sees the other Red Bull of Sergio Pérez return. The Mexican trails him at only seven points.
Revanchard, the Monegasque will therefore try to limit the breakage to defend his place on the narrow Hungaroring circuit. Just like Ferrari, second in the constructors’ championship, which also hopes to return to Red Bull. “Things are just more complicated, but [le titre] is not impossible, assured his boss Mattia Binotto, after the French round. The most important thing is to see that we have the potential, (…) there is no reason why we cannot win the last ten races.” A real challenge: in the first twelve rounds of the championship, Verstappen won seven victories, and Ferrari four.