Formula 1 Spanish GP

Leclerc "can't afford" more F1 DNFs after Spanish GP exit

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said his team can't afford many more unforced errors after retiring from a dominant lead in Formula 1's Spanish Grand Prix.

Filip Cleeren

Edited: May 23, 2022, 11:17 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, is returned to the garage and retired from the race after leading

Leclerc had been easily leading the first half of the race until the Monegasque driver reported a loss of power on his Ferrari on the 26th of 66 laps.

The issue proved terminal, as Leclerc coasted into the pitlane into an early retirement.

Ferrari soon confirmed that an undiagnosed power unit issue was the cause of his early exit. Leclerc said he had received no early warning, with the engine suddenly giving up.

"No, I don't know anything more than what happened basically. I had no indications before and it just broke and I lost the power completely, so it's a shame," Leclerc told Sky Sports.

On a sweltering and windy Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which had forced both teammate Carlos Sainz and title rival Max Verstappen into early mistakes, Leclerc had been producing a flawless performance which looked poised to rebuild his championship lead.

After seeing Verstappen and Red Bull draw closer in Miami, Ferrari's vast suite of upgrades allowed Leclerc to take pole, which he looked set to convert into a crushing victory.

Instead, his retirement opened the door for Verstappen to win the race, and also net the Dutchman a championship lead for the first time in 2022.

Leclerc said he wasn't too concerned about the prospect of losing hold of the points lead but acknowledged he could not afford many more DNFs like Spain.

"We will look at this issue and we cannot afford for this to happen many times during the season, so we need to find the problem," he added.

"The lead of the championship will go down to basically nothing or maybe we will lose it actually but that's fine. I'm not looking at it.

"I think what is the most important is your own performance and performance-wise we are performing very well so I can't wait to go at home next week and hopefully we'll have a great result [in Monaco]."

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, George Russell, Mercedes W13, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, the rest of the field at the start

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

A silver lining for Leclerc is that its Barcelona upgrades appeared to work well and the team went some way in addressing its relatively poor tyre management over the past few races.

He added: "In those moments, I believe there's nothing else I can do apart from looking at the positives and there are plenty this weekend.

"There's the qualifying pace, the race pace and, most importantly, the tyre management. That has been a weakness in the last few races.

"I think we've definitely found something this weekend on that, so it gives me the confidence for the rest of the season."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article The Spanish Grand Prix as it happened

Next article F1 Grand Prix race results: Verstappen wins Spanish GP

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

3 h

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 4 h

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

Feature

Discover prime content

How Formula 1 proved the naysayers wrong – for once

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

How Formula 1 proved the naysayers wrong – for once

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

How Lando Norris prevailed in a swift errors tour of Interlagos

"He really wanted it" – why Russell was furious over aborted Brazil ‘pole’ lap

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Stuart Codling

"He really wanted it" – why Russell was furious over aborted Brazil ‘pole’ lap

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Brazilian GP

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 Brazilian GP

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts