Two consecutive missed Q3s for Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc is a master of the flying lap in Qualifying. The Monegasque driver already has 19 pole positions in Formula 1 compared to just five race victories. The Ferrari cars he has had at his disposal since joining the Maranello team certainly showed a particular predisposition for single-lap performance compared to effectiveness in long runs, but it is evident that Charles Leclerc truly has a great affinity for Qualifying.
In the last two Qualifying sessions, however, the Ferrari driver had to surrender in Q1 in Barcelona and in Q2 in Montreal.
The two situations are by no means comparable; at Montmelò, Charles Leclerc was convinced he was a victim of a technical problem, while in Canada, the Monegasque driver hit out at the Ferrari wall for not immediately complying with his desire to switch to slick tires without setting a time with the intermediates.
After an initial outburst in interviews, the Ferrari driver later retracted, emphasizing that he had his share of responsibility in the failure to reach Q3 in Canada.
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Today in Maranello, a meeting is scheduled to analyze what did not work perfectly between Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari wall in Q2 on Saturday: “You can always do a better job. However, it’s not the right time to discuss it immediately after qualifying. We had a conversation with Charles to give him the full picture of what happened during the session, and afterwards, he was much calmer. The confusion probably stemmed from not having the overall perspective. Perhaps we need to improve to help him understand our point of view. However, we cannot say that we did a good job in qualifying because we had a good pace and finished 10th and 11th. It means we made a mistake,” stated Ferrari’s team principal Frederic Vasseur during the press conference after the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
Fred Vasseur emphasized that the ‘imposed’ decision for Charles Leclerc to continue with the intermediates for a flying lap was due to the desire to protect themselves from the imminent rain, which ultimately made the drivers’ efforts in the final moments of Q2 futile:
“It wasn’t our choice. The rain was coming, and we risked ending up without a useful lap. If we had changed tires after the first lap, it would have required two or three more laps to get them up to temperature, delaying everything by several minutes.” These words highlight that, from Fred Vasseur’s and the Maranello pit wall’s perspective, there was no need to ‘choose’ but simply to complete a lap with the intermediates because it was the only option at that moment.
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