Leclerc refuses to publicly criticise Ferrari

Charles Leclerc insists he will not be caught publicly criticising Ferrari.

The Maranello team emerged with a highly competitive car in 2022 but amid performance, strategic and reliability problems is only narrowly in front of Mercedes for second overall.

When asked if Ferrari and boss Mattia Binotto have been criticised too harshly, Leclerc told motorsport-magazin.com: "I don’t pay any attention to that.

"I only talk about my own mistakes. There is a lot of negativity but in my opinion this should not be paid attention to as it doesn’t help. We must focus on our work.

"When something goes wrong, people always criticise but sometimes for no particular reason. Formula 1 is a very complex sport, and it is difficult to understand it if you only watch it from the outside."

And so Leclerc insists that if team mistakes are criticised, it is only done internally.

"In a team, you need to be honest with each other and build everything on this," said the 25-year-old. "I am always the first to admit my mistakes, but when it comes to team mistakes, I will not speak about them publicly.

"We will discuss them within the team - this is my approach.

"When talking to the media, I am as restrained as possible, but I try to ensure that my voice is always heard within the team."