Leclerc always looking for negatives to improve on

Charles Leclrec says he is always searching for negative aspects of his driving to improve as he looks to continue his strong form during his rookie Formula 1 season. 

The Sauber driver has been one of the stars of the season so far as he recorded the Swiss squad’s first back-to-back points finishes since 2015 by finishing sixth in Baku and 10th in Spain. 

Leclerc’s home race in Monaco was ended by brake failure before he returned to the points with an impressive drive to 10th in Canada, having made it into Q2 for the fourth race in succession. 

When asked how confident he is following his recent run of strong results, Leclerc replied: “Strangely it’s not that high! They are good results, but after every race I always try to find the negatives about myself and try to improve them. 

“It has gone well for now but it’s not like I feel completely confident. I’m not someone who always feels confident about themselves so I’m always trying to improve. I think that’s a strength also, but it has definitely been good in the last races.

“I think we really maximised the weekend,” he added. “As a team we can still do some improvements with the brakes and my Q2 lap could have been better when you see that only six-hundredths were separating me from P11. I think on the driving side I could have done things better there so a little bit of both and then we can improve.”

Ferrari protege Leclerc, who admitted his early performances suffered as he initially struggled with the step up from Formula 2 to F1, feels he has improved as a driver more in the opening seven races of 2018 than at any previous time in his career. 

“I think in seven races I’ve improved more than in three years in single seaters,” he explained. “There are so many new things in Formula 1 and they are pushing so much into details that it’s crazy. But you learn a lot and I’ve definitely learned a lot as a person and as a driver.

“I think I’ve always learned quite quickly any time I’ve changed categories, so I’m obviously I’m not expecting to do a step like from the first race to the seventh from now onwards. But there’s definitely always room for improvement and I consider myself as quite young so I believe that I still have a lot to learn.”