2022 Australian GP: Post-race reaction from Charles Leclerc and Ferrari

Charles Leclerc took an emphatic 2022 FIA Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix win, finishing over 20 seconds clear of Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez and the third-placed Mercedes of George Russell as defending World Champion Max Verstappen exited the race soon after the halfway point with a mechanical problem.

Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz was the Worst affected by the start. On hard tyres, the second Ferrari driver struggled for grip when the lights went out and he was swamped by rivals and dropped to 14^th. His struggles ended on lap two.

Sainz passed Haas’ Mick Schumacher on the run to Turn 9, but he went too deep, and as he tried to turn he lost the rear of the Ferrari and spun into the gravel trap. Beached in the runoff area, he had no option but to retire from the race

Ferrari (104 points) leads the constructor championship ahead of Mercedes(65 points) by 39 points after three races into the 2022 season. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc leads the driver championship table with 71 points ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in P2 with 37 points. Carlos Sainz sits in P3 with 33 points.

Looking ahead, and after a short break, the F1 circus heads to Imola. Italy, Ferrari heartland, Tifosi likely to be out in force… And their man is leading the championship by a comfortable margin. If you thought the atmosphere was rocking here, you haven’t seen anything yet.

The Australian race, run on a very different type of track to the first two rounds in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has confirmed yet again that those in Maranello have done a good job. The F1-75 has been versatile in adapting well to the characteristics of the different tracks and Charles was comfortable right from the start today.

In the early laps, he was able to fend off Max Verstappen, the only driver who looked capable of putting him under pressure. But Leclerc managed to pull away thanks in part to the F1-75 allowing for better management of the Medium tyres. This was also seen later when after the second Safety Car, brought out following Sebastian Vettel’s crash, all the cars were already running the Hard tyres.

Charles Leclerc (P1)

“What a great victory this was for us! We managed our pace well and were extremely competitive. We didn’t suffer from tyre degradation, even when pushing hard. The car was just amazing and I’m very pleased with how my race went.On paper, this was a track that we expected to be tough for us, so we have to review our data because we were in fact very strong.

It’s a great way to start the season, but we have to keep in mind that we are only three races into a very long championship. We can’t afford to relax at any moment and have to stay on top of things, most of all on development. Congratulations to everyone on our team. What an amazing job you have all done! I’m very proud of how far we’ve come and can’t wait to continue fighting. Forza Ferrari!”

Carlos Sainz (DNF)

“This is definitely a difficult weekend to digest. After all that happened yesterday, I was looking forward to the race but we hit problems even before the start. On the laps to the grid we had an issue with some switches on the steering wheel and we had to change it one minute before the formation lap.

Unfortunately, at the start, the anti-stall kicked in. Trying to recover and overtake, I made a mistake as I pushed too early when the tyres were probably not ready. Up until Q3 the weekend was going ok but from then on everything just went wrong. We will analyse it carefully, learn and move on. The car felt good so congrats to the team and to Charles for the win. We’ll come back stronger in Imola.”

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal

“I am very pleased. It’s always great to win and it also boosts the morale of the team who deserve all this, because they have all developed the right mentality to face difficult moments head on and make the most of any opportunity. We always say that you can only come out on top in Formula 1 if you do everything to perfection and I think today’s race proved that.

Charles delivered a mature performance, something he is now making a habit of.It’s a shame for Carlos, because his weekend was complicated by a series of circumstances in both qualifying and the race, which affected his performance. I know him well enough to believe that he will turn the negatives to his advantage and come back stronger next time he’s in the car.

The start of the season has been positive and the work of the past few months is paying off. We will continue to concentrate on ourselves and take it one race at a time. We have earned some time with our families over Easter, but then we will get back to it, working on the next race, which being at Imola, takes on even greater importance. We can’t wait to be there and we’re looking forward to seeing the circuit packed with our fans, to share this good start to the year.”