Time For Charles Leclerc To Improve His F1 Record At Qatar GP

What is done, is done and cannot be rectified, repaired or improved upon. This is not just some spiritual saying; to put it frankly, it is a way of life. And that is how things happen and work in real life. What one can do, therefore, is to realise where one has to put maximum effort in order to improve and bounce back. And to apply the above in the life of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari would mean one and only one thing.

It would offer a simple context.

Where it stands, it signifies Charles Leclerc improving his Qatar Grand Prix record.

For what has been done up to this point given his performances and outcomes at the venue that is the Lusail International Circuit, home of the Qatar Grand Prix cannot be rectified. But what is to come, can certainly be looked at or after in order to provide something meaningful or a way forward.

But before one moves any further, it is absolutely pertinent to understand just how has Charles Leclerc performed insofar at the Qatar Grand Prix, a race track where he is, for starters, yet to pick a single pole.

As a matter of fact, an eighth captured in 2021 followed by a fifth in the year 2023 don’t seem to do justice to Charles Leclerc’s infinite potential. And we already know that both as a driver and competitor, Leclerc’s been pipped for future glory. He is after all, the one they dub a future world champion at Maranello.

And while he is certainly world champion material, Charles Leclerc may certainly be mulling over the fact that that his most recent evidence of competitiveness at the Lusail International track didn’t really demonstrate great competitiveness.

While we saw some flashes of speed especially in his closely fought battle with Lewis Hamilton during the Qatar Sprint race, it wasn’t ultimately a great result for the man from Monaco. Charles Leclerc shared that he went for it; referring to his on-track battle with future Ferrari teammate, Lewis Hamilton. In the end, while the young Monegasque, currently competing in his fifth straight season at Ferrari, managed a fifth, it was a seventh place finish for 2020 F1 world champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton.

But in here lies something else too, that may give Leclerc something to wonder or ponder about.

The recently-completed sprint race at the Lusail international track was yet another occasion where his teammate Carlos Sainz jr. did better than him and Charles Leclerc may not have had a great time in finishing another contest, irrespective of it being a sprint contest, behind the Spaniard.

Sainz’s fourth meant that following the Las Vegas Grand Prix finish, which had culminated in a podium for the Madrid-born driver, Leclerc was still behind the Williams-bound driver.

While surely the qualifying for the main Qatar Grand Prix is yet to happen with all of us keenly looking forward to the event, does it even look as though the two Ferraris are going to dominate the proceedings? It is anyone’s call.

And yet, what may please Leclerc to an extent, if not massively, is the very fact that he had topped the FP1 when it happened a day earlier here at Qatar. Great speed, instead of random bursts of pace and a rich vein of form would be needed in the decisive hours that mark the 2024 Qatar GP qualifying. Little else would be of any use to the man who, lest it is forgotten, third on the Driver’s Standings at the moment with a Constructor’s title yet to be sealed.

What do you reckon?