F1 Canada, Vasseur: “To understand Leclerc ko. Sainz, damage to the floor”

by VALERIO BARRETTA

F1 Canada, a black Sunday for the Red team

An inexplicable performance for the Ferrari, even net of the reliability problems and misfortunes that struck it in Montreal. The Red team closed the Grand Prix with a double retirement and above all with a slew of question marks that seemed to have vanished after Monte-Carlo: for Charles Leclerc engine problems, for Carlos Sainz damage to the floor (revealed by Frederic Vasseur and yet not even mentioned by the Spaniard). But the reality is that Ferrari was almost never there even in free practice and qualifying.

Vasseur’s words

The French team principal seeks an explanation for today’s race: “We had a Leclerc’s engine control problem and we lost 8 tenths per lap for 10-15 laps. At a certain point we expected a red flag to make a change and be able to restart. The red flag didn’t come and we lost a lap, and for Charles there the race was over“, this is Vasseur’s comment a Sky Sports F1. “Carlos, on the other hand, didn’t start very well. At the beginning he found himself in the middle of the group and at a certain point he had contact with Bottas or Ricciardo and damaged the front wing and bottom. It was a difficult weekend“.

“The conditions did not harm our race, we damaged ourselves. We had a technical problem with the engine that we need to understand exactly, and we will see it tomorrow. I’m not sure if Leclerc’s problem is related to the power unit, it’s more a question of controls“, he continued. “Carlos was stuck in the group at the start of the race when there was only one dry line, but the damage to the floor was too significant, he lost something like 20 points of aerodynamics, which is 6-8 tenths per lap. When you are in the group you can’t overcome when you have such a big damage“.

“The race was very chaotic, On Saturday we lacked pace and today it was more of a reliability problem. On Saturday we understood what happened, we had an excellent pace both in practice and in qualifying, but I think and hope we found out what it was. Today it wasn’t a question of pace, if Charles hadn’t had those problems I think the pace would have been decent“.