Charles Leclerc arrived in the paddock of the circuit named after the Rodriguez brothers giving the impression of having put the Austin race behind him. The disqualification which came three hours after the checkered flag of the United States Grand Prix was ultimately bad news for Charles but all in all good for Ferrari, which found the podium again with Carlos Sainz, reducing the gap to Mercedes in the Constructors’ World Championship .
Leclerc spoke in Mexico about the assessments made in the post-race briefing, starting with the strategy following a stop that greatly influenced his race. “We obviously understood that the choice was wrong, all the data was rechecked and I believe that in the end it is something that will help us grow. This particular occasion was different to others, because we were the only car to do something so different in terms of strategies. But in the end we understood what went wrong.”
When Ferrari received the news in Austin on Sunday evening of the irregularity of the number 16 car, it was taken by surprise, an impression confirmed by Leclerc himself.
“Yes, it was really a surprise, the car had been frozen on Friday afternoon, we were obviously okay, then something happened. But rules are rules, and they must be respected whatever happens, so it’s no excuse to say that on Friday we were within the required parameters. You have to be able to anticipate events, we were surprised because on Saturday evening we were certain that we were well within the margins, so it’s clear that we didn’t foresee something that then happened.”
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Charles Leclerc with the Mascot Fermin La Calaca and Robert Shwartzman, third Ferrari driver
Last year in Mexico Ferrari found itself having to face difficulties in cooling the power unit, a problem that forced the technicians to reduce the power of the engines to avoid the risk of overheating.
All this, obviously, was to the detriment of performance, and fifth and seventh place in qualifying were followed by fifth and sixth place in the race.
“Last year was a very, very difficult race for us – recalls Leclerc – we had several problems with our package, especially on the power unit front, but we don’t expect to have the same difficulties this year. I hope it can be a good step forward, our car is very different to that of 2022, so I hope it can be a less uphill weekend.”
Ferrari, as well as other teams, have modified the bodies to meet the greater need for cooling of the power units. The nightmare of overheating will be verified in tomorrow’s free practice, but there will still be some fears ahead of the race.
“We know that when you find yourself in traffic you always have to manage things differently than when you have the possibility of driving in clean air – explained Charles – the ideal would be to start from pole, but I consider it quite unlikely, so I expect a complicated race for which, however, we will return more prepared than twelve months ago.”
Leclerc finally commented on the position of McLaren, which has moved to 80 points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ classification with four rounds remaining in the world championship.
“The gap is wide – underlined Charles – but considering their confirmed form in the last few races, nothing is impossible. Having said that, we should not think about them but focus on ourselves. We learned a lot in the second half of the season, which gives me good confidence for next year’s car. But in these last four races we must try to maximize what we have.”
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