So far, there have been no half measures in Ferrari’s Canadian weekend. Leclerc’s strong start was shattered after a few laps by an accident in FP1, a mistake he made up for until the very last lap of Q3, when he went from a potential top-3 position to eighth place. After setting the best time in sector one, Leclerc made a mistake that ruined his final lap. Without enough fuel for a second attempt, Ferrari’s number 16 sadly returned to the pits.
Initially, Charles Leclerc blamed his mistake on Isack Hadjar’s presence (with a disrupted team radio), but later he realized that the Racing Bulls on track could not be considered an impediment. As soon as Leclerc crossed paths with Hadjar (in the interview area), he immediately went to clear things up. “I wanted to tell Isack that when you’re in the car, emotions are sometimes strong, he didn’t do anything wrong. He was just ahead of me in turn 6, and in dirty air, on a track like this, you lose a lot of downforce. I lost the rear and had to abort the lap.”
There is regret. After missing half of FP1 and the entire FP2 session, Leclerc returned to the track in the final practice session, immediately confirming a good feeling with the car. “I felt good,” he explained, “I hardly changed anything in the car setup; it was already fine on Friday morning, which is why I am very, very disappointed. The lap where I made the mistake had started well, I think it would have been good enough to fight at least for the front row, but instead, I will start eighth, so I can only be disappointed.”
Frederic Vasseur echoed the sentiment. “It was a frustrating qualifying for the team because I believe the potential was there and we could have done much better, but in the end, we couldn’t convert it. On the last attempt, Charles was doing a great lap, about a tenth faster than Russell until turn 6, when he found a car in front and had to abort. I’m not saying he would have taken pole, since there were still two-thirds of the lap to go, but it’s a shame because he had recovered well after a very complicated Friday.”
Now the question is what Leclerc can realistically aim for starting from the fourth row. Charles was able to run some laps with a full tank in FP3. “I was very fast, but honestly, I have no idea how the race will go. I still believe I can aim for the podium; I think it will depend on how the start goes and the opportunity to recover positions, but I made my Sunday much harder.”
Compared to his own early expectations (“I hoped to reach Q3”), Lewis Hamilton’s assessment can also be seen as positive. the Briton and his engineers made several changes to the car’s setup after the first two practice sessions. “We made progress,” he confirmed, “I’m happy to have reached Q3 and qualified fifth because I think the biggest improvements came from changes I made to my driving style. This car behaves very differently from those I’ve driven in the past; you approach low-speed corners and wait and wait… it doesn’t want to turn. It’s definitely not suited to this track.”
Lewis praised the ongoing setup work with the team but at the same time sent a very clear message: upgrades are needed. “We’re working, always trying new solutions and making progress. We improved especially starting from qualifying in Monaco. But ultimately, we need upgrades to fight with the guys at the front. We hope to be in the fight for second place in the constructors’ championship, which would be a good result, but next year I want a car that allows me to win. That is the priority.”
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