Charles Leclerc is going into the upcoming Formula 1 weekend in Montreal with a bad feeling, because Ferrari has found no explanation for the poor performance after the mysterious retirement in Q1 from Barcelona.
“There are no exact reasons yet,” reveals the Monegasse on Thursday in Canada.
And that worries him. Because two weeks ago in Barcelona, Leclerc was 19th and therefore penultimate in Q1 and did not make it into the points in the race either. As soon as he crossed the finish line in qualifying, he was surprised at the weak pace of his SF-23, with which teammate Carlos Sainz had started from second on the grid.
“This is the first time this has happened to me in my career,” says Leclerc, who lost a lot of time, especially in left-hand bends. “You could see in the data that I’m losing six and a half or seven tenths in the left turns,” he says. But what caused this has not yet been found out.
“We don’t have a reason, and that’s a little worrying,” he says. “We have to understand why, because the feeling was just really bad.”
But it’s not just qualifying in Spain that’s giving the Scuderia a headache at the moment. Ferrari are generally far from their own expectations, having only finished once on the podium in the first seven races. “We are not satisfied with the performance that we are showing at the moment,” Leclerc clarifies.
No upgrades in Canada
Because even if things didn’t go well for him on Saturday: “Sunday wasn’t great either,” he knows. Although he started from the pits after changing engine parts, it was disappointing to finish 11th out of the points.
Team-mate Carlos Sainz also fell back on Sunday. He couldn’t hold second on the grid and was even swallowed up by Sergio Pérez and George Russell, who started outside the top 10.
“Once again we had problems with the race pace, and we’re trying to push at the moment,” said Leclerc, who demands full throttle from his team: “We have to push and bring upgrades as quickly and regularly as possible. That’s our goal now .”
For the race in Canada, however, Ferrari has no upgrade in its luggage. “So I don’t expect miracles,” says Leclerc. “We just have to try and maximize our package and understand it better. In Spain we were pretty slightly out of the window and lost a lot of performance straight away.”
“Different position” than 2022
However, the team also learned a lot from it, so Leclerc is sure that Ferrari should look better this weekend. “But I don’t expect a big step forward,” he says.
Last year Leclerc had to catch up in Montreal like he did in Barcelona two weeks ago. There, too, he had started from the very back after an engine change, but at least managed to move up to fifth place. That could give us courage that it will be even better with a normal weekend.
At that time Ferrari was in a completely different position, he says and sees strong competition this year: “We expect Aston Martin to be very strong this weekend. We expect Red Bull to be very strong this weekend . But we don’t yet know exactly where Mercedes will be compared to us. But we have to focus on ourselves.”
“But what gives me confidence is the fact that there is a clear direction in which we are working and want to improve. And that makes me believe in the project,” he says, looking to the future.