Charles Leclerc says that he felt “everything was going against me” in the previous handful of Formula 1 races prior to his win in Austria.
Leclerc took his third grand prix win of the year on Sunday, beating title rival Max Verstappen to the finish line.
However, Leclerc was on course to win in Spain and was in contention for victory in Azerbaijan before mechanical issues forced him to retire on both occasions.
Toward the end of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, Leclerc reported that he had an issue with his throttle, not long after team-mate Carlos Sainz retired after his Power Unit caught fire.
But the Monegasque driver stayed ahead of Verstappen until the chequered flag, securing his first race win since the Australian Grand Prix in April.
“I definitely needed it, of course whenever I get to a new race, since five races [ago] I have a smile on my face and I kept being optimistic,” Leclerc said.
“But obviously hard races after hard races, it felt like everything was against me, finally we had a breakthrough, a good race today, and it feels great to have the win again.”
Speaking about the difficulty he faced with his throttle pedal, Leclerc said: “The throttle was very inconsistent and in the middle of corner it would get a bit stuck to whatever percentage.
“In Turn 3 it was very tricky as that’s where you don’t want any more mid-corner speed.
“It was quite tricky to manage, not so much in the high speed, mostly in the slow speed but at the end we managed to get the car to the end which is great.”
Having faced reliability concerns in previous races and witnessing his team-mate retire in Spielberg, Leclerc says that Ferrari must quickly eliminate its gremlins.
“It is definitely a concern, so we need to look into that and make sure it doesn’t happen,” Leclerc said.
“It happened twice on my side in the last five races and now Carlos again. We need to get on top of this as quickly as possible.”
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