Ferrari therefore patched things up in the Imola Grand Prix after the dreadful qualifying session, which saw both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton eliminated in Q2. In the race, the two Ferrari drivers staged a strong comeback, starting from the sixth row and finishing fourth and sixth respectively. Among the two, it was Charles Leclerc who placed lower, objectively unlucky due to the Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car interventions that came at the worst possible times for him.
Bad luck seems to have perfect vision when it comes to Ferrari’s number 16, who could easily pair up with Fernando Alonso in that regard. The Spaniard even made a team radio comment about it during the race. All things considered, Charles Leclerc had an important first part of the race, with a short stint on mediums and an early pit stop that nonetheless allowed him to recover several positions, while also showing strong pace without excessive tyre wear.
Tyre degradation had been a concern, but the Monegasque driver himself admitted that the tyres had performed better than expected. The SF-25 single-seater, if anything, did not behave badly in the race—on the contrary, it delivered consistent and decent performance from start to finish, much like in the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In this respect, the Miami Grand Prix was thankfully a distant memory.
However, the performance in the qualifying sessions remains a crucial factor in today’s Formula 1, with very tight gaps and many competitive teams. It is evident that the engineers do not fully understand the nature of the car, as sometimes even they cannot explain certain behaviours. Most likely, the team does not clearly grasp the performance gap between Saturday and Sunday.
At the end of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc appeared very frustrated, as the timing of the Safety Car periods clearly worked against him. However, he should be satisfied with his performance, which was undoubtedly strong, as it has been for most of the season, with only a few rare exceptions. It is clear that expectations were much higher for Ferrari, but disappointment now needs to give way to awareness.
Saturday’s dreadful qualifying understandably left Ferrari fans disheartened, but Sunday’s race showed, first of all, that the drivers are always performing at their best, and also that the Maranello team is improving in race execution, both in terms of strategy and pit stops. After the Imola Grand Prix, frustration should be replaced by satisfaction with the performance shown; this should be taken as a starting point.
Charles Leclerc admitted that there was a lot of frustration. The Monegasque driver said he had given everything he had, but things simply had not gone their way. The two Safety Car periods had come at the worst possible times for them, and in the last instance, they had not been able to take advantage of it as they had hoped. He had wanted to switch to softs, but Lewis Hamilton had changed strategy at the last moment by diving into the pits.
At that point, the Ferrari driver did not know whether he would lose too many positions by following him, so he preferred to stay out and defend. After the Virtual Safety Car, as expected, there was no way to hold position. The Monegasque driver pushed to the maximum, he was on the limit, but he was aware that he had nothing to reproach himself for. In the end, Charles Leclerc even helped Lewis Hamilton and gave everything until the chequered flag. The Monegasque understood why people always questioned Ferrari’s repeated use of the phrase “we need to understand,” and acknowledged that they said it often. It might seem like a recurring excuse at this stage, especially when performance and results are lacking.
Leave a Reply