Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has labelled Charles Leclerc’s intense self-critical nature as both a “quality” and a “fault”.
This follows the Monegasque driver’s emotional outburst after Qualifying at the British Grand Prix.
The Scuderia arrived at Silverstone with renewed optimism, having shown strong pace during Free Practice sessions.
However, their momentum failed to carry through to the crucial grid-deciding session, where the team could only secure fifth and sixth on the grid. Lewis Hamilton claimed P5 while Leclerc had to settle for P6.
Leclerc was visibly frustrated after the session, unleashing a string of expletives over the team radio and referring to himself with a derogatory term.
He described his final lap as “messy” and saw the outcome as a missed opportunity, further underscoring his disappointment.
Speaking in the media pen afterwards, Leclerc sighed: “Horrible. Nothing really to say, I think the pace was there for the front row but I eventually didn’t do the job when I needed to.”
This isn’t the first time Leclerc has turned the spotlight on himself in moments of frustration.
One of the most infamous examples came during Qualifying at the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when he crashed and radioed the now-famous line, “I am stupid.”
“For probably 10 years or so, one of the qualities of Charles is that he is able to blame himself, and one of the faults of Charles is sometimes he’s blaming himself a bit too much!” Vasseur commented.
“As a team, I appreciate a lot the fact that drivers can say, ‘Okay, my mistake’ – this is positive, because it’s not bringing the team in the wrong direction and they are human.
“They are doing mistakes as everybody [does], and it’s good to have the drivers able to say this.”
