An issue with the wiring loom in Bahrain, a 10-place grid penalty in Jeddah, and a race-ending opening lap collision in Melbourne. The start of the 2023 season for Charles Leclerc has been marred with ill fate. Securing six points from the opening, three races for a driver with a championship pedigree is a depressing reality. Leclerc is living that reality and it’s been evident in his post-race interviews sparking a debate about his motivation. However, Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur spoke publicly to put an end to the debate.

Leclerc’s motivation and future at Ferrari have become highly debatable topics after the Australian GP. The fact remains, the Monegasque has had one of the worst starts of a season. However, TP Vasseur believes, as quoted by Motorsport-Total,  these rumors about the future and the debate about his motivation are baseless and necessary.

“If a driver is asked 30 seconds after the race, then, of course, he is not satisfied. And I would be very frustrated if he were relaxed and happy about it,” said Vasseur. In fact, Vasseur has “absolutely no doubt about Charles’ motivation.” (Translated by Google)

He reiterated, “Of course, the start of the season wasn’t ideal at all. We had a failure in Bahrain, the penalty in Saudi Arabia, and another failure in Australia. That wasn’t planned. But the motivation is still there.”

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The Ferrari boss is doing his best to fend off the media from Leclerc’s back. However, with every poor race result, the rumor mill will start again. Although, the lack of motivation idea is not limited to just one driver at Ferrari.

Apart from Charles Leclerc, Frederic Vasseur also talked about Carlos Sainz’s horrible race result

To get a glimpse of how the race in Australia went for Carlos Sainz one just needs to listen to his mid-race radio. The Spaniard was running fourth through most of the race. However, his collision with Fernando Alonso earned him a 5-second penalty and the race ending behind a safety car put him last on the remaining grid.

Vasseur addressed Sainz’s highly frustrating scenario as well, while discussing his drivers. He said, “With Carlos, the mood was all hell, as you might imagine. You might have heard that on the radio.”

However, in the end, the TP reiterated his point on the team and the drivers’ motivation.“There’s no lack of motivation, it’s just that the results haven’t lived up to expectations. But we know that. But given the results, the mood is actually at an incredibly good level.”

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The Ferrari boss is already putting out fires after the first three races. However, until these fires are internal or ignited by the drivers’ comments, there is still plausible deniability. It will be interesting to see how long this outlook lasts for Ferrari, especially if ill fate keeps following the two drivers.