Emotions have run high in the first part of the season for Charles Leclerc and his team.
There was no race with no emotion. Either win or lead and there will be problems. Quite a few things have happened in the first part of the season.
Yes, it has. The team started the season with a bang after two years in the wilderness. Two wins in the first three races gave Leclerc a 46-point lead over Verstappen.
The story of missed opportunities for Ferrari has dominated since then. Only one further win has been achieved by Leclerc, who has seven pole positions.
He has had his engine fail twice. Three times now, the lead for Leclerc has been turned into a lower finish. Leclerc has been blamed a lot. Third place was turned into sixth by a spin at Imola. He crashed out of the lead in France.
It was great to see that we were fighting for victories.
We have not maximized all the potential we had. This isn't good. I hope we can catch up in the second part of the season. The last few races have been hard.
Leclerc is candid, friendly and honest in his interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The 24 year old is talking.
The cars of Verstappen and Leclerc are so close in performance that it is difficult to say which is faster. Last year's title fight between Verstappen and Hamilton was very competitive.
Instead, Verstappen takes an 80 point lead into the final nine races of the season. They need to look at themselves.
Two in-race errors by Leclerc could cost him points.
Verstappen made two obvious mistakes, going off in Spain and spinning in Hungary, but he recovered to win each time.
Both drivers have had issues.
It's the operational errors that have really hurt. Leclerc was demoted from the lead to fourth place. In Hungary last weekend, there was an incorrect tire strategy that resulted in a sixth place finish.
If these mistakes were not made, Verstappen's lead would be 37 points rather than 80.
What do you think about this?
He says that we know we need to work on that. "We want to do everything we can to get better in every single thing we do, and obviously looking at the first part of this season, there have been some strategy problems, there have been some reliability problems, and there have been driving mistakes."
We are working very hard to improve. We always go through the same process after a mistake, which is to try and understand why we made the wrong decision in the first place. We can move on once we understand a mistake.
Leclerc says that he and Sainz are very involved in the discussions, and that he is confident that they will get better.
He has that confidence.
I know how hard it has been to get us back to where we were. We have been working on those weaknesses of the car for the past two years.
We need to work on our weaknesses. If we work as well as we did in the last two years, we will be able to overcome them.
This is the first time that Leclerc's car has been consistently fast enough for him to fight for the title, yet he still has trouble. What has he done to deal with this?
He says it depends on who it is. I'm very difficult with myself. It's more difficult to deal with my own mistakes than it is to deal with the team.
France was one of those which hurt quite a bit, and I'm always harsher when it's me who does the wrong thing. Even though there weren't a lot of points involved, I was able to go back on track.
I try to analyse what was wrong when I go through tough times, like this one. It's mainly mental.
What was the mindset that I had at that moment of the race that made me go over the limit and make a mistake?
It's easy to talk about it, but it's not always easy to know what was happening in your head at the time. This is a strength of mine that helps me to improve as a driver when I make a mistake.
He says that mistakes are part of the experience and part of the path of anyone in his work.
Every person will have their own way of reacting. This is how I respond to it. Being honest with yourself and growing from it has always been a benefit to me.
Some drivers don't follow the same path. The concept of a racing drivers' book of excuses has been around for a long time. At least not in public, Michael Schumacher was notorious for never admitting he had made a mistake. This is not something that Leclerc would approve of.
He doesn't think hiding it is a good idea. It's obvious to everyone that the mistake comes from the driver, and I don't understand the drivers that are trying to have excuses.
Sometimes it can occur. Something very strange will happen if you crash one out of 200 times. When you start to lose time, and you just don't go forward, you don't like to find excuses.
It's good for the people that are working around me because they know that I'm going to be very honest when I make a mistake and I hope that's the case for them as well. Everybody can learn quicker if it's in Ferrari.
Leclerc has increased his level this year. His advantage over Sainz has gone up a lot. Last year, it was 11-7 to Leclerc in their head-to-head over the year, with an average advantage of 0.122 seconds.
The mental training he uses as part of his development is one of the reasons for this.
Leclerc says mental training is helpful because it helps him to always be at his best when he gets into the car.
He puts his improved performance down to other things.
He says that since he arrived in Formula 1 he has learned year after year and tried to modify some details.
I have changed a lot this year, especially in my preparation for races. I take a break after the races. This is the result of experience. I was careful to all of these details last year, but that is not the case this year. You just feel different as you get older.
I don't want to get to the last part of the season being tired, because I know it's a big opportunity and I just want to win races."
There's a lot more off-time and time where I'm not doing much at home.
Staying at home and training is my new lifestyle. Staying at home with diet and training. There are a lot more boring moments, if I can call them that, but they are very helpful. This changes something.
He thinks he has raised his game because he is in title contention.
I used to say no but I think it's true. When you know you have the car to fight for a world title, you try to cure everything.
I'm going to keep this level of preparation because I felt the benefits when I didn't know it before.
This will be the new standard for me even if I don't win the title next year.
Being in a title fight has changed something.
I don't think it's really. He says he's never felt too much pressure outside. This doesn't make a difference to me. When we were doing the perfect job, we were rewarded with a victory, which was much more rewarding than a fifth place last year.
There are smiles on the faces of the people who are back at the factory and at the track.
We have the chance to get the result that we want now that we have been through two very difficult years. It's great.
There have been disagreements between Leclerc and Verstappen in a number of races, but there have been no confrontations between Verstappen and Hamilton.
This is a rivalry that has been going on for more than a decade. Leclerc admits that he and Max were very aggressive back then.
It was a bit more messy when we were young. There is a lot of respect now that the relationship has improved.
The pair have fought before. After Verstappen barged Leclerc off the track to win in Austria, they staged a wheel-to-wheel fight.
Leclerc doesn't rule out that the battle will become more intense in the future.
He says it depends on the situation. He is willing to go far.
You are not willing to take those risks if you have an advantage in the championship. He is not willing to risk because he had an advantage in the title. I need to catch up points, so I'm not willing to risk.
The championship of last year was so close that I think it was more likely to see these types of things.
If the championship is close towards the end, I would expect us to be more like this. We could see that at the end of the year if it isn't finished.
A group of young drivers are in F1. Verstappen, George Russell, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll were all karting competitors.
The fact that we've raced together since a very long time has made all of us stronger because we've always pushed each other to improve.
The friendship and rivalries are moving on to the golf course. They play a lot. Being elite sportsmen they want to beat each other. It seems odd for a F1 driver to have a golfer as a friend. The appeal is what it is.
It's such a frustrating sport, I don't know who I am. Leclerc said so. I don't play well with them and that's why I get frustrated.
There is something about it that makes it different. If you don't have the right mindset to hit the ball, you already know that it's not where you want it to be.
It's a very good exercise and that's why we love it as drivers.
After nine races in 12 weeks, Leclerc will have three weeks to rest and recuperate.
He admits that the title looks harder but still wants to believe in it. This is what makes me want to work harder.
He has nothing to lose because he is facing a large deficit. He will approach the second part of the season in different ways.
"I really feel like this first part of the season has been my strongest in F1 and I think the way I have worked," Leclerc says.
I don't have to change that approach. I'm extremely happy with the performance I've given and I want to try and grow from the mistakes of the first half. I would like to keep this.
There won't be a lot of changes. We need to work as a team to put together a weekend for the last nine races.
An extended version of this interview can be heard on the radio.
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