#and yknow should they bag any podiums or whatever down the line (even if it's thanks to on-track insanity rather than on performance merit)

[leqclerc]

I saw some comments of Italians saying that in the beginning of last season, when ferrari had their first issues, charles still sound positive and hopeful in the post race interviews. And now in the interview after the first race he already sounds apathetic and defeated like seb and alonso were before. Like he already realized this isn't going to work.

I don't know about that. Obviously it's a big shock (derogatory) and disappointment to unexpectedly DNF in the very first race of the season (especially if it was preventable) so he's hardly going to be all smiles in the immediate aftermath. I believe the drivers are expected to head straight to the media pen after a DNF, which means he basically didn't have a chance to speak to anyone from the team before heading to the media, save for Andrea, who knows about as much as Charles does. His first DNF in 2022 came in Barcelona, at a time where they had a much more competitive car from day 1 and it looked like they could still turn things around pretty easily (Max was ahead by 6 points after that race and that's after RB swapped the cars; had Checo won the race, Charles would've still had the lead in the standings.)

Whereas in this race Ferrari already knew they were on the back foot relative to Red Bull, and that podium was much-needed for the team. So obviously the frustration and disappointment is going to show. However, he looked pretty happy in the pics from his visit to the factory today, so I think the motivation is still there. I remember seeing quotes going around of Charles admitting he's feeling better in the car than he did during testing, so that's already a tentative positive. They supposedly have all this straight line speed banked, so it'll be interesting to see how they'll do on a track where tyre degradation is less of an issue, plus the rumoured wing upgrades...

There's been a lot of defeatism going around, both from the fans but perhaps more surprisingly from the teams themselves, after just one race that probably wasn't all that representative. Remember, some people really, truly believed the season was already decided after Australia last year. Does it look like more of an uphill climb this year compared to last season? Yes, no doubt. But to publicly throw in the towel, like Mercedes is doing, after one race? All this talk of this being the longest-ever season of F1 and people are just shrugging and writing it off. Sure, it looks predictable from where we're standing today, but it's still F1 and there's always a possibility of crazy unexpected shit happening. 🤷🏻‍♀️