“No, I don’t agree with the team.” Charles Leclerc presented himself to the microphones of the press after the disastrous qualifying of the Canadian Grand Prix, to say the least, annoyed.
His was one of the two sensational eliminations at the end of Q2 – the other is Sergio Perez – who caused quite a stir, despite the very difficult conditions of Montreal’s Gilles Villeneuve due to the rain that made the asphalt treacherous.
But let’s go in order. At the end of Q1 the track was drying, with the trajectory now dry and perfect for the Soft tyres, after adequate preparation to bring them up to temperature. Ferrari has decided to let Leclerc (and Sainz) take to the track with Intermediate tyres.
The Monegasque, already in the out lap, expressed his perplexities to the pit wall, stating that the track was already in ideal conditions to be tackled with slick tyres. Ferrari, on the other hand, urged Charles to make a time with the Intermediates.
Leclerc made some mistakes on his lap and when it became clear that the slicks were the perfect tire for those conditions, the team called Leclerc back to the pits to fit the Softs. Too bad that in those instants the rain started falling again, thus making the move to mount the slicks at that juncture wrong.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Francois Tremblay
At that point Leclerc returned to the pits to mount a new set of Intermediates, in a desperate attempt to find a good lap to enter the Top 10 and participate in Q3. Track conditions proved to be too slow and Charles was ruled out.
“Honestly, this time the track conditions weren’t that difficult to read, no. It wasn’t difficult to read that the track was dry,” Leclerc told Sky Sport.
“I said it on the radio in the out lap at the start of Q2. Unfortunately I don’t know why we stayed on the Intermediates on a completely dry track, we switched to the Softs when it started to rain and we make life much more difficult”.
“Q2 was supposed to be an easy session. We set off, do the out lap, understand the situation, immediately return to the pits to put on the slicks and go”, concluded the Monegasque.
Tomorrow the 25-year-old native of the Principality will be called upon to set up an important comeback. He will have to rely on a track where overtaking is quite easy and, above all, on the race pace that his SF-23 showed off to everyone’s surprise in yesterday’s free practice. Will it be enough to remedy one, yet another, horrible day of 2023?
After the interviews in the media zone made a few moments after the end of qualifying, Leclerc once again allowed himself to the microphones of Sky Sport, softening his words towards the team and, indeed, taking his share of responsibility for the elimination that took place in Q2.
“First I got caught up in the adrenaline, let’s say. I didn’t do a great job either. And also compared to the others. We’ll talk to improve. It’s not a good day and maybe I let myself go. There is passion and desire to do well but today didn’t go as well as we all wanted.”
Ferrari showed good pace on Friday, making good use of the Medium and Hard compounds, the most suitable for the race. Precisely for this reason Leclerc thinks he has the opportunity to recover positions, although the question mark is the following: how far can he recover?
“We hope to have a good race, he’ll give everything to try and recover. In qualifying Max was a little ahead but today he could have done well. But if tomorrow it’s dry, he can recover”.
“It could have been done well. If it’s dry, I’m convinced we’ll be able to recover. I don’t know where we’ll be able to arrive, but the sensations were very good. But now we’ll have to try to confirm the good things from Friday in tomorrow’s race,” concluded Leclerc.
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