‘Leclerc is a powerful guy with a strong mind’

Johnny Herbert believes Charles Leclerc has the mental fortitude needed to put his Monaco disappointment behind him and refocus on the title race.

Although Leclerc’s run of Monaco DNFs ended at this year’s race, the Monégasque driver crossing the line in fourth place and less than three seconds behind the race winner, his hoodoo continued.

He was leading the grand prix having started from pole position only for Ferrari to butcher his strategy, Leclerc not only dropping out of the lead but falling off the podium.

Sergio Perez took the win ahead of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.

As such Leclerc’s gap to the reigning World Champion grew to nine points in the Drivers’ standings while Ferrari fell 36 points behind Red Bull.

“I hope they travel to Azerbaijan in a positive mood,” the Sky Sports analyst said as per Motorsport.com. “Last year Charles was on pole position and we know that their car has become a serious blow compared to last season.”

But while the car is looking strong, the same cannot always be said of Ferrari who came in for some stick from pundits after their Monaco blunder.

Herbert has urged Leclerc to shrug off that disappointment, after all he “knows he has a strong car that can win races.”

“Ferrari didn’t have a very good tactical performance there [Monaco],” he continued.

“They took away from Charles the chance to win, but he is a powerful guy with a strong mind. That’s why he sometimes does very clever things.

“He’s the kind of person who can have a bad race, that gets stuck somewhere in the back of his mind, but then he carries on in a powerful way.”

Ferrari need to pull one back against Red Bull, the Milton Keynes squad on a four-race winning streak, with Herbert confident they can do it at this