#honestly seeing the energy and enthusiasm and hope being sapped from him ceaselessly race after race after race

[leqclerc]

Honestly the championship and the farce of the race aside, I’m mostly just angry and upset at Ferrari botching this season so spectacularly and on so many levels, including strategic and technical. That car started off as formidable, quick, obedient, and what we’re seeing now is a mediocre, struggling car being pushed beyond its limits by the driver. After the warm-up period Charles’s tyres started dropping off very quickly causing a significant loss of pace. Still, he defended as best he could for as long as he could from a much stronger, quicker Red Bull.

Of course, Max and his team (largely built around him, where he’s given 100% steadfast support and backing) have been superior this season and the mess of this race aside it was only a matter of time before they inevitably sealed the deal. That being said, Ferrari have made it irritatingly easy and had they presented a more competent, united front and chose to stand behind Charles 100% it would’ve (and should’ve, given their form at the start of the season) been a much closer battle for the title(s). They can’t control RB’s development or Max’s performance but they can control their own development as a constructor and as a team. Instead you get this sense of being robbed of that competition, of being denied; the bitter disappointment of Ferrari once again failing to reach its full potential, or, worse, even holding Charles back from reaching his full potential at times.