Leclerc and Ferrari uninterested in 'what is being said externally'

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari has no interest in the negativity and criticism leveled at the Italian outfit this season, insisting everyone is keeping their head down, and is focused on improving and moving forward.

After a dismal period of performance in 2020 and a slight improvement last season, Ferrari hit the ground at the start of 2022 when it rolled out its very competitive new-generation ground effect car.

However, as the season unfolded, the Scuderia was overhauled by the irresistible duo formed by Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

Although Ferrari's F1-75 contender was a match out on the track for the bulls' RB18, strategy errors and missteps heavily undermined the Italian's outfit's results, and often left Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz to ponder what may have been on Sunday evenings.

• Read also: Sainz optimistic despite 'nightmare' season at Ferrari

But on social media, Monday morning quarterbacks found faults and dressed down the House of Maranello, heaving a cloud of negativity at the team.

Despite the disparagement, Leclerc insists his team and himself remained focused on the job at hand.

"I don’t pay attention to that," he told Motorsport-Magazin. "I’m sure there was a lot of negativity circulating at the time, but I don’t think we should focus on that.

"That doesn’t help us. We have to concentrate on ourselves.

"At a certain point you get used to it and you just have to move on, I don’t want to focus on what is being said externally.

"I just look at the team and make sure they know exactly what we need to work on."

Even calls for team boss Mattia Binotto to resign were pragmatically ignored by those in charge and by the crews in the battlefield.

"We shouldn’t focus on what’s going on externally," added the Monegasque who is still targeting a runner-up spot in the 2022 championship behind world champion Charles Leclerc.

"When something goes wrong, people criticise, sometimes without any reason.

"F1 is a very complex sport and it’s very difficult to understand exactly what’s going on unless you are part of it. That’s why we shouldn’t let it drive us crazy.

"We have to be honest with each other internally and build on that."

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