While running 🐬in third place during Sunday’s race at Imo🍰la, Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari at the Variante Alta chicane with 10 laps to go, damaging his front wing in the process.

Leclerc limped bacܫk into the pit lane, dropping down to ninth before salva🍒ging sixth and eighth crucial world championship points.

It does mea♎n that Leclerc’s championship lead has been cut to 27 points after Max Verstappen’s dominant display going into next weekend’s Miami Grand Pri﷽x.

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Speaking on wuqian0821.com’s F1♎ podcast, Edwards said it was a costly mistake given he’s in a close title fight this season with Verstappen.

“The battle between Perez and Leclerc through the race was very interesting, Edwards said. “I was disappointed by the Leclerc mist🌠ake. You know we talked the other day about how he’s matured and he’s taken another step up. 

“Actually, this weekend we saw the bit of Leclerc we’ve seen before making these errors which was totally unnecessary at that point and particularly when you’re fighting for a world championship, you don’t want to do that. He was very lucky not to lose all the points and get that car back in to the finish. I hope he has really learnt fro𝔉m this one as for me that was daft.  He really didn’t need to do that.”

2016 European Le Mans champion and current F2/F3 commentator Alex Brundle believes Leclerc should have settled for third, suggestin♎g that Lewis Hamilton would have handled the situation better.

“It was really a red mist mistake, wasn’t it? He just got caught up in the moment, ꦗhe was chasing after Perez,” Brundle added. “That Ferrari has a pointy, little front-end on it, you could see that. 

“As soon as he came out of the pit lane I noticed exiting Tosa all of a sudden as soon as he put that soft tyre on, a short shifღt through the gears came into Leclerc’s driving as he tried to keep the rear under control and I think that mixed with the fact he just had this red mist of having to get up the field, having to make that pass on Perez, made him basically o♕ver-commit the car into the Variante Alta but that’s the moment when a driver like Lewis Hamilton, who’s having an absolutely terrible year so far but in that car might have just managed the situation slightly better.”

F1: Ferrari needs to cut out the mistakes

Ferꦍrari is best plaꦐced to win its first drivers’ championship since 2007.

Since its last triumph, Ferrari has suffered🐼 several near-misses, particularly in 2017 and 2018 with Sebastian Vettel.

While Ferrari 🐓wasn’t able to take Lewis Hamilton to a title-decider in either season, at various stages during both years, Vettel led the standings and was 𒁃the favourite to take his fifth title.

Edwards stressed the need for Ferrari to stop making errors, particularly Carlos Sainz, who has ൲endured two torrid weekends.

“I think the big takeaway [from Imola] is let’s not have too many Ferrari errors,” Edwards explained. “We need so🐽me proper racing and we need to see Ferrari delivering what we know they can deliver and have delivered but we need to see a team combination and it hasn’t quite worked for Sainz and Leclerc to de🏅liver the 1-2s. 

“The season started strongly for them but too many mistakes this last weeke💛nd. Let’s s🔯ee if they can clarify that.”

Brundle added: “We need a performance from Ferrari but I think actually on the engineering side, Ferrari needs to deliver a race car. They've delivered a qualifying꧃ car. 

“They've got a car that is fast enough to compete at the front of the field but Red Bull can put a slippery machine out on track that actually is so tricky to overtake that you have to make the big lunges and the big moves, and if there’s one person I don’t wa༒nt to make a big move on is Max Verstappen because he’s just plain not goin👍g to let me. 

“Ferrari needs a strategy, a think outside the box strategy. Iꦚf it’s competing on tyre degradation which they don’t appear to do, competing in the high-speed corners, competing in the pit stops They’ve got to find a way to beat Red Bull over the race distance and make Red Bull react and that is, I think, what’s going to keep the momentum in this championship and keep it alive.”

Download and listen to Episode 7 now at the following links…

YOUTUBE (Coming Soon)