Charles Leclerc’s expectations for the Australian Grand Prix lasted just 3 corners. After a cautious start, the Monegasque decided to attack Lance Stroll on the outside of Turn 3, but a chain of events brought the Ferrari driver and the Canadian into contact.
Charles Leclerc ended up in the gravel area and remained blocked once the spin was over. This is yet another part of an incredibly poor start to the 2023 Formula 1 season, which left only Carlos Sainz Jr. on the track.
“I’m frustrated. It’s definitely the worst start to the season I’ve had. I’ve only scored 6 points, or in any case I don’t know how many there are in total, but they are few. It’s frustrating,” admitted Charles Leclerc who arrived in the media zone.
Charles then gave his interpretation of the accident that forced him to retire, stating that he felt no responsibility for what happened.
“I’ve already reviewed the incident also from the camera car. I knew the race would be long. In Turn 1 I was calm but in Turn 3 there was space. Honestly, I didn’t plan to overtake, but Lance braked much earlier than usual because of what Fernando did. Unfortunately, Fernando had to brake because he had cars in front and Lance thus found himself between him and me and we touched. It was a racing incident, but it’s frustrating because the start to the season has been bad. We hope to do better starting from Baku”.
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Now Formula 1 will take a one month break. Ferrari will thus have the opportunity to work hard to create the ‘B’ version of the SF-23, trying to better understand its current characteristics in order to arrive in Baku with clearer ideas on how to maximize its potential.
“I don’t usually take long breaks when things go wrong. We have to keep working to improve the car, obviously, making the most of the time we have available. Carlos is showing good pace today, we hope to do better and better. At the moment I don’t have long-term goals for this season. We have to think about finishing race by race without taking penalties and having problems. These are the priorities at this particular moment.” – the Monegasque driver added.
Charles Leclerc’s frustration is also due to the fact that in Melbourne the SF-23 seemed to have a much better pace than in the first two outings of the 2023 Formula 1 season.
“It’s clear that Ferrari should and has to improve the car. We were waiting a lot for this race because, as we’re seeing from Carlos, we could have done something very interesting. We made a few set-up changes and I think that in terms of race pace we could have see a good improvement. I’m waiting for the next race to understand how and how much our race pace can be better. In qualifying here, we weren’t able to put anything together on the fast lap, but we know that the potential is there. Now it’s a question of understanding how much we can improve in the race”, concluded Charles Leclerc.
