Would Leclerc have won in Baku had his Ferrari survived?

By:

Matt Kew

Jun 14, 2022, 11:38 AM

Charles Leclerc's second engine problem in three races meant Max Verstappen had a free run to claim his fifth win of the 2022 Formula 1 season. Whether Leclerc would have been able to repel the Red Bull driver's charge on much older tyres is a question we'll never know the answer to. However, there are some clues from the in-race data that we can infer from

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When the engine nestled in the back of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari went up in smoke in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend, so too did our chances of witnessing a potentially thrilling climax when he might have battled with rival Max Verstappen for the ultimate spoils.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: “It's a shame it didn't play out, because I think we did have a very quick race car today. And I think with that eight- or nine-lap overlap with the drivers, that would have been a sufficient advantage to hopefully make a pass on [Leclerc].”

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Matt Kew

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Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.