Villeneuve: applause to Leclerc, criticism of Ferrari | FormulaPassion.it

Jacques Villeneuve has never minced his tongue, neither as a driver nor as a Formula 1 ‘columnist’. The 1997 world champion, who this year also managed to qualify for the Daytona 500 in the Nascar championship, analyzed the Monaco GP last weekend for the Dutch site Formulas1.nl, giving up diplomacy and openly clearing up the ‘controversy’ on strategies that exploded after the mess caused by the Ferrari wall that cost a probable victory for Charles Leclerc in his home race. The young Monegasque talent, who had conquered a splendid pole position on Saturday, had the possibility of returning to the top of the world championship but was ‘forced’ by circumstances to a very bitter fourth place. According to the former color bearer of Williams and BAR in Formula 1, the Ferrari is throwing away key points with a view to the race for the two world titles.

“Charles Leclerc was, just like in Barcelona, much better than all the others – ruled the Canadian champion – he was relaxed all weekend and had everything under control. But in the race I struggled to understand [le scelte del team]. They didn’t want to take any chances with Leclerc. [Ma] in Monaco, don’t gamble and play it safe never pays. Both Sainz and Perez made the right decision. Leclerc is in trouble – added Villeneuve again – despite having clearly been the strongest rider of all for two races in a row. He is not making any mistakes. He drove well [a Barcellona], then he had mechanical problems and here his strategy didn’t work. He didn’t even get on the podium and lost points to Max again. Ferrari lost momentum, it should be in the lead, even in the constructors’ championship “.