Ferrari team boss details the factors behind Charles Leclerc’s Baku qualifying incident. Ferrari struggles in Baku qualifying as Charles Leclerc crashes.

Saturday nightmare for Ferrari

After a strong Friday that ended with a Ferrari one-two, Saturday in Baku brought a harsh reality check. Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2, while Charles Leclerc crashed in Q3. Below are the statements from Ferrari’s drivers and team principal Frederic Vasseur in the press release issued by the team.

Frederic Vasseur

“There is a sense of frustration after this qualifying session, because yesterday we had a very good pace both in the long runs and on single laps. Today the conditions were different, with much stronger gusts of wind and lower temperatures, which made it harder to bring the tires into the correct operating window. But it was the same for everyone, so this is not an excuse. We struggled to put everything together. Charles had good pace and was doing a solid job, but then he ended up in the wall. I think he was hit by a gust of wind that slipped between the buildings, and in these situations it’s easy to make mistakes, especially when conditions change from lap to lap. He wasn’t the only one today. That’s how it is, and now we have to focus on the race. It’s also true that today it wasn’t clear what the best choice was between Soft and Medium; the pole was set with the Softs, while Carlos (Sainz) was second with the Mediums.” – the French manager pointed out.

Charles Leclerc

“Today we opted for the Mediums as the best compound, but unfortunately with the lower temperatures it became difficult to bring the tires into the correct window. I overdid it in that corner and simply didn’t have enough grip, so I made a mistake. Things didn’t go our way today, as happened to others, so we will have to do our best tomorrow and fight to get back to the front.” – the Monegasque added.

Lewis Hamilton

“I’m disappointed not to have been able to turn our good start to the weekend into an equally strong qualifying result. We will analyze the session with the team to see what we can learn. We know tomorrow will be a challenge, but the car has performed well all weekend and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do in the race.”