Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc said he got “angry” at his radio messages in Spain because he wanted to chase a podium, but he was told about cars behind him instead.
The Ferrari driver had an excellent weekend, putting his car P4 on the grid and sweeping around the outside of Valtteri Bottas at Turn 3 at the start to get himself into the podium places.
Bottas managed to get back past the Monegasque, but although a fourth-placed finish was “the perfect race” for the Prancing Horse – Leclerc had hoped to get more out of the Spanish Grand Prix.
“Yes, a lot,” Leclerc told Sky Italy when asked if he hoped for a podium. “Indeed on the radio I got angry because they kept telling me the times of Ricciardo, but I wanted the ones of Bottas behind me because I wanted to aim for the podium.
“There was optimism but in the end, I wanted to try, but we didn’t make it.
“Honestly today we did the perfect race. We didn’t make any mistakes, the strategy was good, the tyre management was good as well. At the beginning I made that overtake on Bottas, I saw the opportunity, I thought we couldn’t change the fourth position, but I saw a space on the left and I tried to overtake and it went well.
“Then the stint with the softs was really competitive, as the one with the mediums. I think we had even more pace than the one we showed, because I tried to handle the tyres until [Sergio] Perez arrived. Yes, we had a good race.”
Charles Leclerc spoke about the “motivation” inside Ferrari at the moment, with the team looking much more competitive when compared to their 2020 challenger.
He added that he is also still working on his driving style, making improvements in how he manages his tyres over a race distance.
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