Charles Leclerc's 'mistake' at French GP proved to be 'crucial' in 2022 F1 championship race, says former world champion

Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve has said that Charles Leclerc's crash at Paul Ricard proved key in determining the 2022 F1 title race.

The Canadian talked about how Ferrari's propensity to make mistakes put paid to Leclerc's championship hopes as Red Bull's Max Verstappen won back-to-back championships.

In his post-race column in Formule.nl, Villeneuve wrote about Leclerc's crash at the French GP, which brought Verstappen back into the title race:

"The championship for Max Verstappen is of course well deserved. With the exception of the first three races, Red Bull has been almost perfect. Ferrari then collapsed; the team went wrong way too often which also increased the pressure on Charles."

Villeneuve continued:

"He also started to make mistakes, and the question will always be, would that have happened without the blunders of the team? His mistake when he took the lead in Paul Ricard was ultimately crucial for the championship."

The former Williams driver said that one of the biggest differences between Red Bull and Ferrari was that the latter went hard on their tyres. He wrote:

"It happened again in the last corner (at Suzuka). Of course, Verstappen would have won it anyway, but Red Bull got the perfect ending. They are winning in the land of Honda while the ties are being tightened again. They have really been super strong, have made great strides. It may have looked easy, but make no mistake. I think the main difference has been that the RB18 doesn't eat its tyres like the Ferrari does."

Verstappen won his second championship with four races to go.

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Charles Leclerc reflects on disappointing result in Japan

Charles Leclerc lost out on P2 in the last lap of the Japanese GP after getting a five-second penalty for cutting on chicane on Sergio Perez.

In the 28-lap race, he ended up more than a second per lap behind Verstappen. The Ferrari driver lamented tyre wear as one of the main issues for the result. He said:

"I gave it my all, but it was a difficult race for us today. We were strong in warming up the tyres in the first few laps, but then it all faded away. Especially at the end, I struggled with front tyre degradation and it was really difficult to keep Checo (Perez) behind me."

Leclerc continued:

"We will use the last four races to work on our race execution, tyre management and becoming a stronger team all-round so that we can mount an even better challenge next year. We've already been making steps in the right direction in the past two races and we will keep on pushing this way until the end."

Leclerc (252) has fallen to third in the championship, behind Sergio Perez (253) and winner Verstappen (366).