According to Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, there is no “magic solution” that could help the Maranello team overtake Red Bull in the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, which takes place this weekened at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA.
During Friday’s two practice sessions, Charles Leclerc achieved two third-place finishes. However, he suffered a big crash heavily at Turns 7-8 during the second free practice session, but luckily only the right-front of his SF-23 single-seater was damaged, and the new upgrades brought by the Italian remained undamaged in view of the rest of the Miami weekend.
Despite being confident that they can keep up with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez over a fast run in the qualifying session on Saturday, Charles Leclerc feels that matching them in the race on Sunday would be nearly impossible due, in part, to the high rate of tyre wear on the Ferrari SF-23 car.
“In terms of race pace, I don’t think we have any miracle in hand to close the gap,” – the Monegasque replied, when asked how things went for Scuderia Ferrari following the second free practice session for the Miami Grand Prix – “I don’t think we will be much closer [to Red Bull]. The feeling is pretty good over one lap, but in the race, we are so far behind Red Bull, who are in a league of their own. In the race we definitely have a lot of time to find, but in qualifying pace, we are more or less there.” – the Ferrari man continued.
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Given the fact that the Miami track conditions were improving towards the end of FP2, as more rubber was laid down following the constant running, Charles Leclerc got a tank-slapper at Turn 7, turned into the slide, but then lost control of the SF-23 challenger, which sent him into the barriers, ending his second free practice session, despite Charles doing his best to avoid hitting the wall.
The Monegasque explained the incident was caused by the lack of grip and his attempt to push the car to the limits in order to understand the track limits:
“Overall, it is very tricky because there’s only one line and whenever you get offline, there’s really poor grip. Basically that is what happened: I pushed too much, lost the rear trying to recover from it but I had no room to turn the car, so that was it, but there’s no big damage. Obviously the right front is gone, but apart from that, there was no damage to the rear of the car, which is the most important, and tomorrow is another day, and I am sure it will go well.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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