Striking statistic on Leclerc crash: 'The first time since 2005'

Jolyon Palmer believes Charles Leclerc needs to think about his driving in the future. His costly mistake during the French Grand Prix has allowed Max Verstappen to move further ahead in the drivers' championship. According to the Brit, it has been a long time since a driver made such a big mistake.

Leclerc's race in France soon came to an end, as the Ferrari driver crashed into the wall on lap 18. In his analysis for Formula 1 on YouTube, Palmer looks at the crash of the Monegasque. As Leclerc went too wide, he ended up on the dirty part of the track. As a result, he lost control of the wheel.

"I think it’s the first time a driver has crashed out the lead of a race in dry conditions since 2005. It hasn’t happened I think in seventeen years. We’ve seen it in the wet more recently with Vettel and Hamilton in Hockenheim, but this was a huge mistake from Leclerc", the former F1 driver begins.

Leclerc makes two mistakes in twelve races

Verstappen made an early pit stop to try an undercut strategy on Leclerc. The Dutchman kept his rival in his sights in the opening laps of the Grand Prix, but overtaking was not as easy as Red Bull Racing expected. The team therefore opted for a different strategy. According to Palmer, Leclerc was not under much pressure because of Verstappen's early pit stop. The crash was therefore unnecessary.

"People don’t tend to spin out of races without having an incident with someone else often these days at all. Now Charles has done it twice in the first twelve races. It’s a case of overdriving I think. Sometimes you look so good under pressure, here there didn’t seem to be an absolute level of pressure, because Verstappen was in the pits and slightly moving to a different strategy. Charles is digging too deep. Maybe he needs to think about how he drives in the future", Palmer ends.