Charles Leclerc does not think that Ferrari’s championship drought puts pressure on the team and forces them to make mistakes.
After several difficult seasons, Ferrari got the machinery that allows them to constantly fight for race wins. The season started well for the Maranello-based outfit as they won 2 out of 3 opening races. However, they lost their advantage to Red Bull Racing due to a combination of reliability issues, controversial strategy calls, and driver errors.
Ferrari’s last Drivers’ Championship victory took place in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen, while they triumphed in the Constructors’ Championship for the last time in 2008.
When asked whether his driving style was affected by the desire to end the championship drought, Leclerc replied: “I mean, I don’t think about this.
“Even though Ferrari remains Ferrari of 2000, the team is very different, and we are [in] a different place now.
“The last few years have been very difficult for us [Ferrari finished 6th in the 2020 Constructors’ Championship].
“We did an incredible step from last year to this year to be fighting for wins and obviously the goal remains to be world champion.
“It still remains the same goal for me, even though that now is going to be more difficult.
“But it doesn’t add pressure that it has been so many years, and we haven’t won.”
Leclerc added that Ferrari now have everything they need to win the titles.
“I think that the base now is there to win a championship, we just need to put everything together.
“Reliability has been a problem this year in which we’ve lost loads of points, and we’ll try to grow from that.
“Hopefully, if we don’t have these [problems] for the rest of the year, things are still possible. But I still remain positive.”
