Scuderia Ferrari managed to salvage the disastrous qualifying from yesterday afternoon, securing a fifth and seventh place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the venue of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Thanks to a good strategy, the Maranello team gained several positions in , with Charles Leclerc battling for fourth place with George Russell’s Mercedes until the final kilometers. Only the better traction of the number 63 W15 prevented Charles from overtaking and finishing just off the podium.
At the end of the race, Charles Leclerc acknowledged that he had executed a perfect race with the help of the team, but he wanted to retract the words he said yesterday after qualifying, which had sounded like a sort of accusation towards the team for not giving him a set of tires at the right temperature when it was most needed.
Today, Charles Leclerc fully took responsibility for what happened yesterday, emphasizing how the mistake in turn 1 was more decisive for qualifying than the incorrect tire temperature. His words seem to reflect an internal discussion within the team, and today Charles wanted to make his statement.
“We had a perfect race; we executed everything in the best way possible. However, I’d like to go back to yesterday’s qualifying. Certainly, the tires weren’t at the right temperature when I went out for the last attempt, but even if I hadn’t gone wide at turn 1, I would have helped myself more and wouldn’t have wasted the last lap. I’m the one to blame for yesterday’s qualifying, and with my words yesterday, perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I would have liked. So today I paid the price for yesterday’s qualifying, which was… let’s say bad to avoid swearing, I don’t want to work with Max (laughs).”
Going back to the race, Charles Leclerc couldn’t fully express the potential of his Ferrari in the first part because he was slowed down by the train formed by Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, both much slower than his Ferrari. The DRS effect didn’t allow him to attempt an overtake, but once the pit stops began, the Monegasque started his comeback, finishing in fifth place.
“Today was a recovery race, but we really had a good race. The first part was frustrating because I lost so much time behind Nico (Hulkenberg) and Fernando (Alonso), but we had a good race. It wasn’t enough for fourth place, but it went well.”
Ferrari decided to adopt two different strategies, and both paid off. Carlos Sainz pitted very early, switching from Mediums to Hards and undercutting several cars ahead. Leclerc, on the other hand, stayed longer on the Mediums and maximized the performance of the Hards in the second stint.
“We talked a lot about strategies and whether to do an early pit stop like Carlos Sainz did to undercut. But it’s always difficult… We thought it was better to adopt two different strategies for the two cars, also considering the possibility of a Safety Car or a red flag. We were hoping for that. But we knew that going a bit longer wouldn’t be a disaster, and in fact, we had a good race, and I have no regrets.”
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