Charles Leclerc reflects on a tough Formula 1 weekend as Ferrari falters with poor pace, strategy errors and communication at the Canadian GP.
Charles Leclerc experienced a turbulent weekend in Canada, with a crash in FP1, a withdrawal from FP2, a missed opportunity in qualifying, and a poorly judged race strategy from his team. The Ferrari driver acknowledges that his weekend was very complicated, but denies that he needs to prove himself to his team.
“We’re a bit on the back foot, but it’s more down to the starting position than to pace, because the pace wasn’t too bad,” Leclerc said. “I’m frustrated not to have put everything together, but apart from that, nothing really affects me. I think the team knows where I stand and knows what I want to do. That’s what matters most to me.”
Amid rumors and criticism surrounding team principal Frédéric Vasseur, the Monegasque prefers to focus on the task at hand of bringing Scuderia back to the top: “I prefer to focus on our work. We’re not here to try to prove anyone wrong.”
“We’re simply trying to do our job as best we can, and we’ll be happy if we succeed. We really didn’t do what was needed this weekend, so I’m looking forward to the next race to try to turn things around.”
In Canada, there was yet another communication hiccup between Leclerc and his team, and he explains why their perspectives differed at that moment: “We were aligned at one point, then the team decided to converge towards the two-stop strategy, which I didn’t agree with at that moment.”
“We were aligned at one point, then the team decided to converge on the two-stop strategy, which I didn’t approve of at that moment. But ultimately, I think the team has more information than I do on the pit wall.”
“We’re going to review it, because I was quite confident in what I was feeling, in what I had seen around me, that the one-stop was the right decision. But I think today’s poor result is more due to my mistake in Q1 and the traffic in qualifying yesterday than anything else.”
Vasseur acknowledges that it would have been possible to try a risky strategy, but the team lacked data: “I spoke with Charles after the race to tell him he’s right to say that we don’t have much to lose when we’re at the back of the pack.”
“We can take risks, but it was a bit too optimistic for us to do a 50-lap stint on the hard tyres in terms of life and performance. We were probably also missing a few laps during the weekend to assess that.”