Charles Leclerc "surprised" by Mercedes' pace in Qatar: "We didn't expect to be so far behind"

Charles Leclerc “surprised” by Mercedes’ pace in Qatar: “We didn’t expect to be so far behind”. Charles Leclerc .

The performance of the Mercedes W14 in the Qatar Grand Prix at the Lusail International Circuit left Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc “taken aback” as George Russell overtook him after recovering from a first-lap crash.

In the Qatar Grand Prix, George Russell made a remarkable comeback after finding himself at the back of the field on the first lap due to a collision with his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, ultimately finishing ahead of Charles Leclerc in fourth place. The Monegasque driver, who was the only driver to take part in the Qatar Grand Prix for the Maranello team, secured the fifth position, while Aston Martin Fernando Alonso looked set to finish ahead of Charles, but eventually trailed behind due to a mistake midway through the race.

Charles Leclerc explained that Ferrari had taken additional precautions due to Carlos Sainz‘s inability to start the race due to a fuel leak. Nonetheless, he expressed his surprise at the pace of the Mercedes team. As a result of this race, Mercedes extended its advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship by an additional two points, bringing the lead to 28 points, ahead of the United States Grand Prix. However, with five more races and two Sprints remaining in the season, the battle for P2 continues, as the Italian side hopes to be more competitive in the final events of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign, especially on certain tracks.

“We didn’t start the day in the best way possible with Carlos’ issue, which was a shame,” Charles Leclerc admitted at the end of the Qatar Grand Prix – “In this way, it made us take a bit more margin on my side driving-wise, just to be on the safe side. But I don’t think there was more we could have extracted for the race. We were not surprised with McLaren’s pace, even though they were super quick, we expected on Friday that they would be very strong. On the other hand, we’re quite surprised with Mercedes’ pace. For them to finish in front of us with crashing on Lap 1 is surprising, we didn’t expect to be so far behind.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver concluded.