Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc is ready to move past his crash at the French Grand Prix last weekend as he gears up for the final race before the summer break in Budapest.
Leclerc started on pole in Le Castellet, and had held off the challenge of Max Verstappen in the early stages before the Dutchman pitted.
The 24-year-old had a comfortable lead over Sir Lewis Hamilton as a result before he lost the back end through Turn 11 and span off into the barrier.
He said after the race that it is “pointless” to be in the title fight this season if he is to keep making mistakes – he has made two major ones this year – but he spent a few days at home in Monaco to recharge his batteries ahead of this weekend.
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Now, Leclerc is in a better headspace and, with France behind him, he feels ready to move on to the excitement of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
“At the end there’s nothing that will help me dwelling on my mistake or staying in the past on that mistake,” he said.
“Now I just need to move on, focus 100 per cent for this weekend, try to do the best possible, try to win this race and then I’m sure it will go well.
“The real pressure I had before that, when Max was really behind, then at that point Max had already moved to a non-optimal strategy so I just had to push and focus on my own race, which I was doing.
“But then obviously when you are fighting with the limits, sometimes mistakes can happen and I think this is a kind of mistake that I just went too far and that’s it.”
The five-time race winner, who had been looking to make it two in a row in France following his victory in Austria, reiterated that the crash was his fault and no one else’s.
“I really hate to say ‘oh it’s the wind, oh it’s a bird’ or whatever, I think I’m driving the car ultimately and I did a mistake,” said a candid Leclerc.
“Yes, the conditions change a little bit every lap and that’s for everyone, it’s obviously more tricky whenever you are on the limit, but again, I think everybody’s on the limit.”
Moving on to this weekend, the tight, twisty sections of the Hungaroring are expected to suit Ferrari a little better since they have looked stronger than Red Bull this year on circuits that require more downforce.
Couple that with their improvements in a straight line in recent weeks, and the Scuderia are in a strong position in Hungary.
“I think we’ll have a strong car, Paul Ricard and Budapest are two tracks where I struggled a bit more in the past, personally,” admitted Leclerc.
“But Australia was the case also this year and at the end I managed to have a great weekend, so I hope this weekend I can also turn things around.”
Leclerc trails Verstappen by 63 points heading into this weekend’s race in Hungary.