Charles Leclerc discloses when he realized 'it would be very difficult' to beat Max Verstappen to the 2022 F1 title

According to Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen's win in Spa led him to believe that the title battle was all but over. The Red Bull driver was enjoying a significant lead over Charles Leclerc when F1 went into the summer break.

Having said that, according to Charles Leclerc, one could understand that the title battle was all but over when Max Verstappen dominated in Spa. In an interview with Motorsport.com, he revealed,

"Many people believe that this moment is the French Grand Prix, but for me it was in Spa. During the summer break, I believed that we still had the possibility to stay in the race until the end. Then the Belgian Grand Prix arrived and it was the first weekend of the season in which Red Bull was truly superior in terms of pace. After that weekend I thought it would be very difficult to keep our chances intact in the World Championship.”

Ferrari's strategy was brought into question early in the season, but Charles Leclerc was confident that this was something that the team had been improving. He said,

"At present, I believe that the points where we need to improve our tyre management, communication, strategy and reliability, which was a problem that we had to deal with in the first half of the season and that we had to manage. I believe that we have made progress on communication and strategy, especially in the last few races."

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Charles Leclerc feels there is progress being made

Talking about the team's changes in the last few races, Charles acknowledged that Red Bull and Max Verstappen had been somewhat unbeatable in the second half of the season. Having said that, the team was making progress regarding decision-making while keeping a check on tire management. He said,

“The team has done a great job on these aspects and I have seen the progress. It wasn’t very obvious because in some race the correct choices are less obvious. As far as tyre management is concerned, we still have to make some progress. We have seen a stronger Red Bull on this front, especially in specific conditions, such as at Suzuka. In summary, we know what we are missing, and on some fronts I am already seeing steps forward.”

Not only Leclerc but Sainz too has been compromised early in the season with either poor decision-making in the strategy or a lack of reliability of the machinery. These are the things where Ferrari would be hoping to make improvements for next season.