Starting on pole, Leclerc finishes second in Baku, overtaken early by Piastri despite a speed advantage.
Starting from pole position in Baku for the fourth consecutive year, Charles Leclerc was once again compelled to settle for second place, this time defeated by Oscar Piastri’s McLaren F1. The Ferrari driver was overtaken by his rival at the beginning of the second stint and did not conceal his disappointment, as he appeared to have a faster car than his opponent in the latter part of the Grand Prix.
“The race was quite frustrating. McLaren and we opted for different setups. Clearly, they had, I believe, a package with less downforce. We had a bit more downforce, which allowed us to be quite quick in the castle section. However, on all the straights, they were flying. And that’s probably where I lost the race.”
“I misjudged the situation. When Oscar overtook me in the first corner, I wasn’t too worried. I just wanted to stay in the DRS, preserve my tyres, and attempt an overtake later. But that opportunity never really materialised, simply because we were too slow on the straights. Yes, it was a small error in judgement that had significant consequences. Sometimes, it hurts, and this time it did. But that’s how it is. On the other hand, the last two races have been quite good in terms of performance. This weekend wasn’t very good because Carlos, who was in a strong position, failed to finish the race. But within the team, we are in a good position, in a good mindset, and we must continue to push in this direction.”
After pulling away during the first stint on medium tyres, Leclerc saw his lead diminish over Piastri once he switched to hard tyres. And the rest is history, marked by a bold overtake by the Australian.
“As soon as I came out of the pits with the hard tyre, we couldn’t find the grip that McLaren had on these tyres. And again, when Oscar passed me, I was very calm in the car. I focused on managing my tyres, which I did. And after ten or 15 laps, I thought everything was coming together and that perhaps, towards the end, we would be better placed. But with the dirty air, I think for about 20 or 25 laps towards the end, my tyres were completely worn out. And once again, they were too fast on the straights for me to attempt anything.”
Was Leclerc caught off-guard by the McLaren driver’s manoeuvre?
“Not really surprised, because he wasn’t completely behind me. He was slightly to the left. So, I could see in my mirrors that he was there and it was possible he might go for it. But again, I couldn’t really be super aggressive. My tyres were still cold. I was really struggling to get them up to temperature. I thought it wasn’t too bad if he passed me at that point because the race was still long and the DRS would help me stay within a second of him, and once my tyres were up to temperature, I could pass him again. But as I said, it was a misjudgement on my part.”
Is Ferrari now a contender for victory every weekend?
Even assuming that McLaren F1 was more successful than Ferrari in getting the hard tyres up to temperature, how does it explain that the gap dropped from six seconds to only one and a half seconds after Leclerc’s stop?
“I think we lost the race due to two misjudgements. Obviously, the first, as I explained earlier, was not fighting harder against Oscar, because we then struggled to overtake on the straight. The second was that we expected the undercut to be very difficult to achieve, simply because we thought that warming up the hard tyre would be extremely challenging for some reason.”
“I don’t have an explanation yet because I haven’t gone into the details, but we need to understand how the gap went from six seconds to one and a half seconds, because that’s really not what we expected. And it’s a lot; it represents four and a half or four seconds – a lot of time lost, and I don’t know exactly why and where we lost this time. So, this needs to be analysed. But when we talk about this lap time, I think it’s straightforward. And we will see very quickly whether they had a better warming up of the hard tyres than we did or if we lost time elsewhere.”
“If I could do it over, I would have stopped a lap earlier to try and maintain the gap to Oscar behind and not have that pressure when warming up the tyres on a circuit like this. It’s never the position you want to be in. But then again, it’s always very easy to change things after the race. Oscar and McLaren did a better job than myself and Ferrari. And they deserved to win.”
Despite this disappointment, Charles Leclerc remains on a streak of four consecutive podiums and could have also secured a second victory following his win at Monza. Is Scuderia Ferrari now a contender for victory in all the remaining Grands Prix?
“Not yet, although that might still be the case in Singapore. These three races have very specific characteristics for the cars. So, we must wait until Austin, which will be a more typical track, to see if we have made the progress we expected. But for these last two races and Singapore, we need to maximize our points and seize the opportunities that arise to win races. And I feel that we missed that opportunity this time.”
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Leclerc Rues ‘Two Errors in Judgement’ in Baku Defeat Leclerc Rues ‘Two Errors in Judgement’ in Baku Defeat. f1 Leclerc Rues ‘Two Errors in Judgement’ in Baku Defeat
