“We took a step in the right direction, but I’m a little disappointed.” In a few words, Charles Leclerc photographed Ferrari on Sunday, which in the end leaves Singapore with a booty that takes on different shades depending on the angle of observation. There is a lot of good in seeing a double podium (missing from Miami), a pole position and above all the thirty-three points in the Constructors’ classification which bring the margin over the Mercedes (sixty-six lengths) to reassuring dimensions.
The race pace was good, Leclerc had the chance to win a race that he actually lost in the first four hundred meters after the start. It was not the Ferrari seen at Spa or Zandvoort, Leclerc was attached to the leader Perez for almost the entire race and in some phases he gave the impression of having even more of it than Checo. Potentially Ferrari could have won the Singapore Grand Prix, but for this very reason, as Leclerc admitted, there is disappointment.
Leclerc congratulates Perez after the Mexican’s victory: the two finished the GP rather tried
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
After Saturday’s pole position, and with the reassuring eighth position at the start occupied by Max Verstappen, everything seemed to be there to find that victory that was missing from the Austrian Grand Prix, a success that if Charles had taken the lead at the first corner he would probably have also arrived. .
Instead, the start did not go as planned, and for Leclerc the start in the wet was problematic, as it had also been at Imola. “I don’t think the two are linked – he clarified – Carlos made a great start today. The only thing I felt was a bit of slippage, then I saw Checo which I must say he had a fantastic start ”.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75 ahead of Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
After losing the lead at the start, the race became complicated for Leclerc. In the first stint (with intermediate tires) he never had the chance to try an attack on Perez, a scenario that instead seemed possible with the switch to slicks.
“I tried to put a lot of pressure on Checo – explained Leclerc – but in the end the tires overheated and I lost performance. It wasn’t easy to ride in Sergio’s gearbox, but I tried ”.
In an attempt to mislead Perez (the only chance to overtake Red Bull) Leclerc often blocked the front and eventually had to give up.
However, the problem of tire management still remains, which is not yet up to Red Bull, and probably will not be until the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi. Even today in the first ten laps Leclerc held up against Red Bull, then a slow and progressive decline in performance began.
At the first corner Perez was already ahead of the two Ferrari drivers
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
The performance loss coincided with the time it would have been needed, which was when Perez came under investigation for not keeping ten cars away behind the safety car.
Red Bull stretched lap after lap to build that five-second margin that the team asked of him, but at this juncture Leclerc had little to reproach himself with, giving everything he could and also taking considerable risks.
“I tried – admitted Charles – I knew Checo was under investigation, but when my engineer said he was 5” 1 ahead of me, I took care to get the car under the checkered flag without taking any further risks “.
Sainz and Leclerc at the closed park of Marina Bay: Ferrari fails to return to victory
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
The Monegasque’s race was very different from that of Carlos Sainz, who at the end of the trip to Singapore took third place with a much lighter specific weight than that of his teammate’s place of honor. “I have never found the rhythm,” commented Sainz, who has always lapped at times very far from those of Leclerc.
Only in the final laps did Carlos approach Leclerc’s performance, but by now the race was in fact over. The good news for Sainz are the fifteen points won in the standings, but otherwise the gap against Leclerc was so large that it did not lead us to believe only in a lack of feeling from the Spaniard. If it were just a question of driving, it wouldn’t be good news for Carlos.
#Ferrari #deceiving #convincing #Leclerc