Charles Leclerc spent the last five minutes of qualifying in the Ferrari garage, helmet off, eyes fixed on the timing screen. At that moment, his name appeared in fourth place (behind the McLaren duo and George Russell) thanks to the time set with his last set of new soft tires. His early exit from Q3 was due to the lack of further sets of ‘red’ tires. Usually, drivers prefer to go out on track in the final three minutes of the session, aiming for the peak grip of the track, but today at the Catalunya circuit, this ‘bonus’ was compounded by a sudden drop in asphalt temperature caused by an approaching storm front.
As a result, Charles Leclerc gradually saw his position drop in qualifying, being overtaken at the last moment by Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Antonelli. “I take full responsibility for what happened in qualifying,” Charles commented. “It was my choice to go out in the middle of Q3; the team had advised me to leave the garage in the final minutes. I wanted to have a Plan B in case that lap didn’t go as planned due to a mistake or any other reason, I wanted the chance to do a second lap.”
Another factor that kept Charles Leclerc from going beyond seventh on the starting grid relates to the choice of tire sets for the rest of the weekend made the previous evening. Unlike Hamilton, who, as planned in FP3, used one set of Mediums and one of Softs, Charles decided to save an extra set of ‘yellows’ for the race tomorrow, giving up a fifth set of Softs in qualifying. Tomorrow, all the top drivers will have three sets of new tires available: one Hard, one Medium, and one Soft, while Leclerc will count on (in addition to the set of Hards) two sets of Mediums.
“I decided to go with what I believe is the best choice for the race,” Leclerc explained. “If we do poorly, I will take full responsibility for that choice; if it goes well, I will be happy to take credit for pushing the team in a certain direction. Obviously, starting seventh is a bit below our expectations, but I hope the choices we made will pay off.”
Charles Leclerc admitted he had a positive feeling in Q1 and Q2, but when all direct rivals pushed to the maximum, the scenario changed a bit. “I was already thinking about this last night,” Charles admitted, “if you don’t get to the crucial moment, you don’t really know where everyone stands, and McLaren is still a step ahead. However, I want to say that regarding tire preparation today we had no issues; I think we are making progress in the right direction, the feeling was better.”
On Saturday in Barcelona, the best-placed Ferrari after qualifying was Hamilton’s, something that hadn’t happened since the Chinese GP, the second race of the season. Lewis Hamilton did not follow Charles Leclerc’s strategy, arriving in qualifying with five sets of new Softs, which allowed him to keep two sets in Q3 and capitalizing on it with a fifth-place finish. An encouraging result that Hamilton does not consider accidental: “In Monaco, I saw improvement in tire preparation, so I hoped that progress would be confirmed this weekend, and it was.”
Lewis Hamilton was instead critical of the new FIA rules on front wing flexibility. “Yesterday I was confused,” he explained, “the balance is definitely not as good as before and it brought no improvement. Personally, I think it was just a waste of money for all teams, since in the end nothing literally changed. Teams had to build new sets of wings only to see them still flex, maybe half as much as before, but what difference does it make? It’s the same for everyone.”
Lewis Hamilton smiled again when asked about his expectations for tomorrow. “My goal is the podium, since I haven’t been on one for a long time. There is quite a bit of distance from the start to the braking point at turn 1, I remember George’s start last year, so there’s a chance to gain positions. After that, it’s about managing the tires here, which is not easy, but we can compete.”
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