A forgettable qualifying session for the Monegasque driver in Barcelona, eliminated in Q1 and forced to start in 19th position. Ferrari will now have to investigate, but Charles seems fairly convinced that something wasn’t right with his SF-23.
The package of updates introduced yesterday had brought some cautious smiles to the Ferrari box, but the qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix was a real cold shower, at least for Charles Leclerc.
With the track still dirty due to rain in the late morning, the Monegasque driver never managed to find the right feeling with his SF-23 and ended up being eliminated at the end of Q1, not even by a matter of milliseconds, as he will start in 19th position tomorrow. In the first run, the feeling was that it might only be a matter of getting the tires in the right operating window. However, when a new set of soft tires was mounted, it became clearer that there might be something wrong with his car, as Charles Leclerc confirmed in the post-qualifying interviews at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona:
“Honestly, I would be very surprised if the car is fine. Now we have to look closely at the data, but above all at the car because there was something wrong. We had driven in these conditions this morning, and it was very good,” Charles Leclerc told the microphones of Sky Sport F1.
“The thing that tells me that something was wrong is that when I took right turns, everything was fine, but when I took left turns, there was something on the rear right that didn’t make sense to me. We need to investigate because it cost us a lot today, but tomorrow we need to regain a good feeling to get back in front,” he added clearly disappointed at the end of the qualifying session in Barcelona.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Now, it will be important to try to understand what happened and resolve this situation. The problem is still unclear, but Charles Leclerc has little doubt that something is amiss.
“I don’t have the answer right now; I should look at the data before commenting. But I would be surprised if there isn’t something out of place or something strange on the car. The feeling was completely different from what I’ve had since the beginning of the year. I almost crashed during the red flag; I almost lost it while going at 60 km/h, so we need to investigate because something doesn’t add up,” Charles Leclerc concluded.
Leave a Reply