At the Chinese GP, Leclerc’s one-stop strategy faltered under McLaren’s pace, failing to grasp the podium.
Charles Leclerc doesn’t understand why his car reacted so poorly to the hard tires during the Chinese Grand Prix F1 race. The Ferrari driver regrets that his attempt at a one-stop strategy, initially the only one aiming for it, was made uninteresting by the safety car.
“The performance disappeared the moment we put on the hard tires. We were on a good strategy, but the safety car put everyone on the same strategy,” Leclerc told Canal+.
“With the hard tires, we found it much more difficult than we thought, McLaren was much faster than we anticipated with the hard tires. I thought on the first set of tires that the podium was playable, and I realized during the second stint on hards that it wasn’t possible.”
Although his strategy was Plan D, he explains that it wasn’t the last strategy considered, but it also wasn’t the primary objective: “It wasn’t necessarily the plan we had in mind to do, but with the safety car, it was clear we had to seize this opportunity.”
Sainz could not do better than fifth
Carlos Sainz completed Ferrari’s result with fifth place, and he regrets a poor start and a strategy that did not work, as the drivers ahead of him were in better conditions for the final laps.
“It was a bit of a difficult race for us. We need to review the start because I had a strange trajectory in turns 1 and 2, and the Mercedes and Haas overtook us, which cost us time,” said the Spanish driver.
“And then, the timing of the safety car exits wasn’t ideal because everyone could put on new tires ahead of me and I had old rubber. Considering the circumstances, I think fifth place was the maximum.”
Unexpectedly on this track, he acknowledges the superiority of McLaren over Ferrari: “I think they were just stronger this weekend. They show a better pace than us on this type of circuit, we qualify behind them and without any problems in the first lap, we have no chance of overtaking them.”
Leclerc Falters at GP as McLaren Outpaces Ferrari. Leclerc Falters at GP as McLaren Outpaces Ferrari
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