Tag: Charles Leclerc

Leclerc ‘slowly’ starting Ferrari contract talks

Charles Leclerc says he has begun preliminary contract talks with Ferrari but has no firm deadline given the amount of time still remaining on his current deal. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur stated earlier this year that opening discussions …

Charles Leclerc says he has begun preliminary contract talks with Ferrari but has no firm deadline given the amount of time still remaining on his current deal.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur stated earlier this year that opening discussions with Leclerc about a contract extension was not a priority, as he wants the team to focus on delivering more performance. Now with 18 months until his contract expires, Leclerc says he’s also not in a rush to agree a new deal but that talks have begun.

“No, I don’t have any particular deadlines,” Leclerc said. “I mean, I still feel like a year-and-a-half is a long way to go. But I didn’t tell myself any particular deadlines.

“Slowly. We’re starting slowly to speak about it, yes.”

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Leclerc insists he isn’t considering options with other teams at this stage, saying he wants to repay the faith that Ferrari has shown in him as a driver but also wants to see improvements in terms of performance.

“To be honest, it’s not really on my mind yet. When I say we ‘slowly’ started talking about it, it’s just here and there, but nothing special, nothing specific. Again, I feel like it’s a long way to go and I don’t feel it’s now the time to start talking about it.

“Ferrari has been the team that has helped me to get to where I am. I’ve never hidden that I’ve always been extremely happy to be in Ferrari. Of course, the team and I are not happy with where we are at the moment, but I am confident that we are working in the right direction. Again, I love Ferrari, so I’m happy here.

“It’s probably the first time in my career that I’m in this position (with potential interest). I don’t think it’s because nobody wanted me in the past, it’s just because of the nature of the contract, it’s the first time in my career that I actually get closer to a deal to end in Formula 1. And all of the other changes I’ve made until now — basically, Sauber to Ferrari was quite straightforward.

“So, it is a different situation I find myself in in my career. But I don’t mind — I’m just focusing on driving. I just hope to win as quickly as possible at Ferrari for now and then we will see.”

Leclerc frustrated by being ignored by Ferrari pitwall in Canada

Charles Leclerc admits he is frustrated that Ferrari did not listen to him when he told the team he wanted slick tires during qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix. At the start of Q2 the circuit was drying out but teams were awaiting more rain that …

Charles Leclerc admits he is frustrated that Ferrari did not listen to him when he told the team he wanted slick tires during qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix.

At the start of Q2 the circuit was drying out but teams were awaiting more rain that was in the vicinity, so the majority of cars went out on intermediate tires. Alex Albon was the only car on slicks but Lando Norris had already told McLaren the dry tire was the right compound, and Leclerc concurred and asked to pit to make a change but was told by Ferrari to stay out and set a time on intermediates, ultimately failing to advance to Q3 after missing the dry tire window.

“I called for slicks on the out lap, it was clearly for slicks,” Leclerc said. “The car was dry. I think Alex did that and went earlier than everybody on the slicks. That was clearly the right choice; there was no risks taken…whatsoever. But for some reason, the team decided otherwise.

“I think we are just making our life way too difficult in those situations. I had a clear opinion. We decided to do something else. I am frustrated. Having said that, other drivers did the same strategy as us and went through to Q3. You are just relying on small details instead of an easy Q2 — going through when the track is dry, you need slick tires. I don’t know what happened.”

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Leclerc had told Ferrari he wanted slicks but then asked if he was pitting or the team wanted him to stay out, but he believes he made his feelings known effectively.

“I think there was no clearer way of me expressing myself this time. I will speak internally with the team and try to understand what we can do. It’s obviously not the first time in those situations that we are on the wrong side.

“I don’t want to comment on it too much. But we have to be better than that; we can’t afford to do those mistakes again. I will speak with the team.

“I clearly said my opinion, more than that I can’t really do. I have no idea what lap times Alex is doing in terms of the slicks. Maybe he is 5s off, I don’t know. I had a clear opinion, obviously Alex was fast. I have to understand what was the target in doing that, what was the aim. The track was dry.”

Leclerc is set to start the race from 10th place after teammate Carlos Sainz was penalized for impeding Pierre Gasly in Q1, demoting the other Ferrari to 11th.

Leclerc to start Spanish Grand Prix from pit lane

Charles Leclerc will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane as Ferrari will make changes to his car following his issues in qualifying. Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 after telling the team it felt like something was wrong with the rear of his …

Charles Leclerc will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the pit lane as Ferrari will make changes to his car following his issues in qualifying.

Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 after telling the team it felt like something was wrong with the rear of his car, admitting he wasn’t surprised at the lack of performance on Saturday. Ferrari was unable to investigate if there was any root cause thoroughly prior to the race so performance engineer Jock Clear says the gearbox and other components on the rear end will be changed to give Leclerc a better chance of recovering through the field in Barcelona.

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“Obviously qualifying on the back row has given us the unfortunate opportunity to look at a lot of things and consider he was really uncomfortable with the car straightaway in qualifying, and had no confidence in the car,” Clear said. “So we’ve taken the opportunity to change the gearbox. That’s effectively all the backend, really to make sure that there’s nothing on there that is untoward.

“We’ve not had an opportunity to look at it yet, because time doesn’t allow you to do that with parc ferme as it is. In fact we haven’t even changed the gearbox yet, we’re in the process. But that will go back to the factory and we’ll check it.

“The thing for him this afternoon is he’ll have a new back end on the car, so that should give him confidence again that whatever might have been in there that wasn’t quite sorted is now sorted, completely new backend, and as such, he will have to start from the pit lane. But he can do that with some confidence, and we can hopefully get him back in the points.”

Clear also says power unit components could be changed ahead of the race, but that other parts that will be of different specification or set-up are the reason for the pit lane start rather than 19th on the grid.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to make some changes. Once we’re at the back, we might as well do everything we can do to minimize the cost of qualifying badly, and take any advantages we can from yesterday’s upset, really. So we’re taking the choice to go from the pit lane.”

Leclerc technically doesn’t lose a position as Logan Sargeant – who qualified 20th – also starts form the pit lane after making similar suspension set-up changes as well as to the Williams brake cooling.

‘Definitely something strange’ with car in Leclerc’s P19 qualifying effort

Charles Leclerc is confident Ferrari will find a problem with his car after dropping out in the first part of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. On a damp but largely dry track, Leclerc was struggling throughout Q1 and was unable to progress …

Charles Leclerc is confident Ferrari will find a problem with his car after dropping out in the first part of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

On a damp but largely dry track, Leclerc was struggling throughout Q1 and was unable to progress despite using two new sets of soft tires to try and get out of trouble. After his first run, the Ferrari driver had told the team there was something wrong with the rear of his car, and although nothing was identified on the data at the time, Leclerc is still sure a source to his woes will be found before he lines up on the back row on Sunday.

“I don’t have the answer right now. We will have to check the data and most of all check the car because there was definitely something strange,” Leclerc said. “I nearly lost it during the red flag and I was at 70 km/h and there was just no warning.

“The left-hand corners were really, really bad with the rear right and I first thought it was the tires, so we went with a new set of tires and on the new set of tires it was the same feeling – right-hand corners really good, left-hand corners completely off. We will have to check, but I would be very surprised if we don’t find something on the car.”

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Leclerc says there were some changes made after FP3 but doesn’t believe they had an impact, nor does he blame being called to the weighbridge late in Q1 as contributing to his early exit.

“A tiny bit (was changed before qualifying), but as you always do. This is not the reason. It was not a setup thing. The setup was just a slight change and this was way too much of a difference from the left-hand corners to the right-hand.

“To be honest I don’t think (the weighbridge) would have made it any better. We were just completely slow and I was not even that surprised when they told me I was out of Q1.”

Starting 19th, the Monegasque is also unsure how much progress he’ll be able to make in the race, despite his teammate Carlos Sainz securing a spot on the front row.

“It’s going to be an uphill weekend, to be honest. On the other hand, it’s a track where we will see quite a few stops — degradation is going to be a big thing tomorrow — so if we do a good job on that we are going to improve our chances.

“For tire deg yesterday our race pace looked a little bit better than normal, apart from Red Bull which is in a league of their own. But let’s wait and see for tomorrow, because yesterday we didn’t know the fuel level of everybody, so it is very difficult to compare.”

Leclerc hit with Monaco grid penalty for impeding Norris

Charles Leclerc has been demoted from third to sixth on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix after impeding Lando Norris during qualifying. The Ferrari driver was in the tunnel section going slowly on a cool-down lap when Lando Norris approached on a …

Charles Leclerc has been demoted from third to sixth on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix after impeding Lando Norris during qualifying.

The Ferrari driver was in the tunnel section going slowly on a cool-down lap when Lando Norris approached on a timed attempt, having to back off and abort his lap. After discussing the incident for nearly two hours, Leclerc was handed a three-place grid penalty that promotes Esteban Ocon to third, Carlos Sainz to fourth and Lewis Hamilton to fifth.

The stewards deemed that Leclerc himself was not to blame for the incident and had reacted impressively, but that Ferrari did not give him the information it could and should have to avoid impeding another driver.

“Both drivers agreed that there was little that Leclerc could have safely done in the tunnel to avoid impeding Norris, given the difficulty in vision due to the light entering…the tunnel and the change of lines from one side of the tunnel to the other,” the stewards’ decision read. “In fact, the stewards observed that Leclerc reacted in a sensible way to a blue flag displayed by the marshals, but at this point it was too late.

“However, the stewards reviewed team radio, and Leclerc’s team failed to give him any warning about Norris’ approach until Norris was already directly behind him. Further, the discussion during the preceding portion of the track was entirely about competing drivers, not the traffic behind, which is a critical task at this track.

“The stewards believe that there is much that Leclerc could have done prior to the tunnel to avoid the impeding had he received warning from the team at an appropriate time, especially considering that Norris’ approach was clear on the marshaling system. Thus, the stewards consider that the impeding was unnecessary.

“The stewards reviewed all the preceding unnecessarily impeding penalties in the past few years. In every case, the actions, or inaction of the team did not mitigate the unnecessary impeding. Thus the stewards impose the usual penalty of a three grid drop.”

The penalty continues an unfortunate run for Leclerc at his home race, where he has yet to finish on the podium, dropping from pole to fourth due to a strategic error last year in what is his only race finish in the Principality.

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Leclerc admits Ferrari inconsistency affecting his confidence

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s lack of consistency this season is making it tough for its drivers to have any confidence during a race. Ferrari brought a new floor to the Miami Grand Prix after a promising weekend in Azerbaijan in which Leclerc took …

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari’s lack of consistency this season is making it tough for its drivers to have any confidence during a race.

Ferrari brought a new floor to the Miami Grand Prix after a promising weekend in Azerbaijan in which Leclerc took pole for both the Grand Prix and the sprint and picked up his first podium of the season. However, he endured a tough race a week later in Miami. Leclerc crashed twice — including once in qualifying — and was limited to seventh place, with Carlos Sainz fifth after losing out to Mercedes’ George Russell in the latter stages.

“What we are lacking is consistency on the car,” Leclerc said. “It’s not even from corner to corner — in the same corner I can have a huge oversteery balance and then a huge understeery balance. Our car is so wind-affected…

“I think it’s been similar since the beginning of the season in every single races. We are going from one compound to the other, and we never know what’s going to happen on the new compound.

“It’s always an unknown, whether the car is going to react well, whether the tires are going to be in the right window. This (makes it) very difficult as a driver to gain the confidence and to adapt your driving. You go from one set to the other, and the car is completely in a different window.”

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The Monaco native says the wildly varying back-to back weekends in Baku and Miami are part of a trend that makes it hard to guess how competitive Ferrari will be at any given race.

“Again, I think this is also part of consistency. We sometimes feel like we’ve done a step forward, and then you arrive in some very particular conditions — it was warmer than other races (in Miami), and now we are completely out of the right window of the tires. So we need to work on that.

“The conditions are going to be very different (for the next race in Imola) with different weather. So we’ll have some new parts on the car which will hopefully go in the right direction. We are working on that consistency, and I hope we’ll see the first progress there.”

Looking at the wider competitive picture following a Miami GP that Ferrari was second and third in a year ago, Leclerc says his team has failed to make the required progress in race trim compared to its rivals.

“It was quite different from last year. But yeah, I think most of all, Red Bull has found something in the race. The Aston Martins, we know that they have a very different car to what they had last year, and Mercedes has done a small step forward, but also last year, they were stronger in the race than they were in qualifying. I think Mercedes is less of a surprise. We are just struggling massively still in the race.”

Leclerc confident Friday crash won’t hinder Miami GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc says his crash during practice for the Miami Grand Prix was down to a lack of grip off-line and is confident it won’t impact his qualifying chances. The Ferrari driver lost the rear of his car at Turn 8 late in FP2, catching a snap …

Charles Leclerc says his crash during practice for the Miami Grand Prix was down to a lack of grip off-line and is confident it won’t impact his qualifying chances.

The Ferrari driver lost the rear of his car at Turn 8 late in FP2, catching a snap of oversteer but then locking up heavily as he went straight into the barrier on the outside of the corner. Leclerc’s incident brought out the red flag and he says the track surface still gaining grip meant he was unable to regain control but doesn’t expect any repercussions from the incident.

“Yeah, overall it’s very tricky because there is only one line and whenever you get off-line there is really, really, poor grip,” Leclerc said. “That’s basically what happened — I pushed too much, lost the rear, tried to recover from it but I had no grip to turn the car so that was it.

“But no big damage. Obviously the front right is gone, but apart from that no damage to the rear of the car which is the most important, but tomorrow is another day and I’m sure it will go well.”

Leclerc was on pole position for both the sprint and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend but was comfortably beaten by Sergio Perez in both races, and he is expecting a similar scenario in Miami after ending Friday with the third fastest time.

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“I think the feeling is quite good over one lap. For the race, we are so far behind; Red Bull is again in a league of its own, very, very far in front. So in the race we definitely have a lot of time to find but in qualifying pace we are more or less there.

“In terms of race pace, I don’t think we have any miracles in hand to close the gap so I don’t think we will be much closer.”

Leclerc was behind teammate Carlos Sainz in FP2 and the Spaniard enjoyed a more encouraging day, having struggled in Baku last time out.

“It has been an intensive Friday — a lot of laps on this new surface, with this new, modified circuit,” Sainz said. “A lot of learning to do, but we went through it pretty nicely, no problems. We made some progress today with the feeling of the car. We also tried a new floor and it looks like it’s working well, so, overall, a positive Friday.

“It looks like everything is back to normal from Baku, which is what I expected, and I’m happy with that. Now we’ll have to prepare qualifying and the race well.”

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Verstappen leads second Miami GP practice as Leclerc crashes

Max Verstappen topped the second practice at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of both Ferrari drivers despite Charles Leclerc crashing out of the session. The Dutchman made easy work of the field with a soft run of 1m 27.930s, which put him 0.385s ahead …

Max Verstappen topped the second practice at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of both Ferrari drivers despite Charles Leclerc crashing out of the session.

The Dutchman made easy work of the field with a soft run of 1m 27.930s, which put him 0.385s ahead of Carlos Sainz and 0.468s on Leclerc.

The Monegasque had more time to give, having ruined his flying lap with a lock-up into Turn 17 at the end of the long back straight that cost him valuable time — the smaller of Leclerc’s two major mistakes.

Having switched to his long-run simulation and into the final 10 minutes of the hour, Leclerc crashed at Turn 8.

The Ferrari driver had attempted to collect a snap of oversteer but ended up spearing through the run-off zone and firing nose-first into he barriers. Fortunately he’d scrubbed off enough speed not to appear to cause significant damage, with only the wing and front-right corner damaged. Crucially his new floor appeared unscathed.

Recovery of the car required a red flag, leaving just three minutes left on the clock when the session resumed, though no drivers improved their times.

Sergio Perez was fourth, 0.489s slower than his leading teammate. He was less than 0.3s faster than Fernando Alonso and a particularly competitive Lando Norris was only 0.811s off Verstappen’s benchmark.

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Lewis Hamilton was seventh at the end of a far less optimistic session for Mercedes following the team’s one-two finish in FP1. Hamilton was 0.928s adrift as the Mercedes car appeared to struggle with balance on the evolving circuit. Teammate George Russell was all the way down in 15th, 1.2s off the pace, after reporting that his car was three-wheeling through the left-handed Turn 2.

Lance Stroll was eighth in the second Aston Martin. Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were ninth and 11th to sandwich an impressive Alex Albon in his Williams.

Kevin Magnussen was 12th for Haas despite a near miss early in the session. The Dane lost control of his Haas entering the slow Turn 14 and spun backwards, only just tagging the barrier with his front-left wheel. He reported no damage and was able to continue.

Alfa Romeo teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas followed in 13th and 14th ahead of Russell.

Oscar Piastri beat Nico Hulkenberg to 16th, while AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries followed in 18th and 19th.

Floridian Logan Sargeant was last for Williams, 2.1s off the pace.

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Red Bull “in another league” – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says Red Bull Racing’s RB19 is in another league compared to the rest of the grid after finishing a distant third to a dominant Sergio Perez-Max Verstappen one-two. Leclerc started from pole position and held off both Verstappen and …

Charles Leclerc says Red Bull Racing’s RB19 is in another league compared to the rest of the grid after finishing a distant third to a dominant Sergio Perez-Max Verstappen one-two.

Leclerc started from pole position and held off both Verstappen and Perez at launch, but his defense of the lead was destined to be short-lived.

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Verstappen breezed past him on lap 4 once DRS had been activated, and Perez wasn’t far behind, demoting Leclerc to third on lap 6 before the Red Bull Racing drivers charged up the road to an eventual 21-second victory over the Ferrari driver.

It was the 15th time Leclerc failed to convert a pole position into a grand prix victory, but he said he never stood a chance in Baku.

“They are in another league when it comes to race,” Leclerc said. “The really good [qualifying] lap managed to put us at the front, but over 51 laps it was just not possible; they have so much more pace than we do in race pace.”

Red Bull Racing’s prodigious top speed has been a talking point all year, particularly with the DRS activated. It’s given both Verstappen and Perez a notable advantage when battling through the field and doesn’t appear to come at the expense of reduced cornering performance.

The speed delta between Verstappen and Leclerc as the Dutchman breezed into the lead was more than 21 miles per hour.

“I think they found something we didn’t yet,” Leclerc said. “That’s where our focus is at the moment.

“Everybody is working flat out to try and understand what we can do in the races, especially to just get more performance.”

Perez and Verstappen enjoyed an advantage of around 0.5s per lap over Leclerc after the safety car, though the average margin was closer to a full second immediately after the race restarted as the two drivers pushed each other in a battle for the lead.

Combined with a long battle with Fernando Alonso, which he won by only 0.8s, it was the result was enough for Leclerc to doubt how much Ferrari had managed to close the gap this weekend, having sounded more optimistic about the team’s progress on Saturday.

“Honestly, the feeling is a little bit better, but when I see the gap – and I’m pretty sure when you have this you’re not pushing at 100 per cent – we don’t really know how much we’ve cut the gap,” he said.

“But the feeling is a little bit better. Again, the Aston Martin was really quick today, so we still have a lot of work to do.”

Carlos Sainz, who toiled to fifth more than 24 seconds behind Leclerc, said he wasn’t convinced Ferrari was genuinely the second-quickest car.

“If you look in detail at are race pace compared to the Astons and the Red Bulls, they still have relatively much better race pace than qualifying pace compared to us,” he said. “This is very high up on our list of things that we want to understand, because definitely the points are on Sunday and that’s where you want to be quicker.”

Leclerc sees silver lining in sprint defeat

Second place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc. Leclerc held off a charging …

Second place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc held off a charging Sergio Perez at the start of the sprint, but his defense of the lead lasted only until DRS was enabled following an early safety car intervention.

The SF-23’s strong form through the technical middle sector wasn’t enough to generate a buffer, and the Mexican breezed past down the front straight and onwards to a comfortable victory.

“It confirmed a little bit what we thought,” Leclerc said. “Red Bull still has the upper hand in the race.

“As I said, if winning is not possible, we just need to take the maximum points, and today there wasn’t anything more. I’m happy with second place.”

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Leclerc also revealed that he was struggling with tire wear in the final 10 minutes or so despite the sprint lasting only 17 laps — a potentially foreboding sign ahead of the 51-lap grand prix.

“I didn’t fight Checo too much, because I just wanted to keep my tires. I knew that was our weak point,” he explained. “We were losing a little bit too much at the end with the degradation.

“I tried to stay in the DRS of Checo so he could pull me on the straights, but that wasn’t enough.”

But there were signs of silver lining in Leclerc’s defeat. The Monegasque was able to hold off Max Verstappen to prevent a Red Bull Racing one-two finish, and Ferrari was clearly the second-quickest car in race trim for the first time this season. Notwithstanding that Verstappen’s progress was slowed by damage picked up in a skirmish with George Russell on the first lap, that all amounted to a considerable and heartening improvement for Ferrari.

“We must not forget how far behind we were on race pace two races ago,” Leclerc said. “We did a step forward, but we are still not where we want to be. I’ll try to go for the win tomorrow even though the Red Bull seems slightly quicker. Let’s see what’s possible to improve tomorrow and we’ll give it all.”

The opportunities have been narrow for Carlos Sainz thus far at Baku. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

Leclerc’s relative optimism contrasted with a downcast teammate Carlos Sainz, who qualified and finished fifth after never looking in contention for a podium.

The Spaniard said his issues this weekend stemmed from a setup mistake made during the sole practice session on Friday, after which parc ferme conditions have prevented him from reverting to a friendlier configuration.

“I’m not surprised [I’m struggling],” he said. “When you can change nothing in the car and you cannot really experiment to get yourself comfortable, you’re in for a difficult weekend like I am at now.

“I’ve done some steps with my driving and changing a few things trying to adapt myself to the balance that I have, and to the track, but its proven to be a very challenging weekend.”

Sainz said he didn’t expect any improvement in the grand prix, which he’ll start from fourth on the grid after qualifying more than 0.8s down on pole-getter Leclerc.

“At this point, knowing what the pace is this weekend, it’s more of a damage-limitation weekend for me than anything else,” he said. “I’m really struggling out there with confidence, always feeling really, really on the limit of the rear axle. It’s not a nice feeling to have around Baku.

“I’m going to need more time after this weekend to really go deeper in the data, because now with this format you simply don’t have time. It’s impossible to take conclusions or to change anything that would help me get a bit more comfortable.”