Ferrari, Leclerc vents after Silverstone: “Nightmare, race thrown down the toilet”

Ferrari, Leclerc vents after Silverstone: “It’s a nightmare, race thrown down the toilet”

“It’s been a nightmare for three or four races now. We have to get out of this situation,” Charles Leclerc said. after the British Grand Prix, which he finished in 14th position. The race was won by a fantastic Lewis Hamilton returned to success in his home GP (ninth success in this race) ahead of Red Bull Max Verstappen (undisputed leader of the F1 World Championship with 255 points) protagonist of a crazy race that led him to threaten the triumph of the Mercedes driver. Third place for McLaren of Landon Norris. Then the other McLaren of Oscar Plates and fifth place for Ferrari Carlos Sainz (Spanish author of the fastest lap).

Returning to Leclerc – who sees Norris extending his lead in second place (170 against 151 points) and Carlos Sainz getting closer (at 146) – the Frenchman talks about his disappointment: “With the team we didn’t agree on the timing of the pit stop, the aggressive strategy didn’t work and I had to come back in. We threw the race in the toilet. Maybe we could have made better decisions”, explained the French driver.

“I had a good start, then I had the feeling it was raining in turn fifteen and I called a pit stop for intermediate tyres. Unfortunately the rain actually came eight laps later and that destroyed us,” Charles Leclerc’s analysis. He adds: “We are one of the few cars that threw away the race. Now we will analyze everything and understand if something more could have been done.”

Ferrari, Carlos Sainz: “Good on a strategic level”

Carlos Sainz was more satisfied: “I tried to fight with Piastri but it didn’t go well. From then on, however, it was one of my best races with Ferrari. We did everything right in terms of strategy. We just lacked performance. In the wet I caught Verstappen but I didn’t have the pace to overtake him. We understood where we went wrong: now we need some time in the wind tunnel and at home to sort out the package of innovations that we brought here and that can give us performance”.

Ferrari, Vasseur’s analysis on Leclerc and Sainz’s strategy

Team Principal Frederic Vasseur spoke about the race strategy: “It’s easy to say at the end of the race what the right strategy was. We gave the same information to both drivers but they were in different situations. Sainz was “copying” Verstappen, Leclerc was further away, behind Stroll. So for Charles we went for a more aggressive strategy, which he also shared. It could have worked, but it went differently. It was a matter of unfavourable circumstances. It cost us dearly on Friday. If I had started further up the field, with two cars in the leading group, we wouldn’t have had to risk so much. Sainz was more conservative at the start of the various stints, then progressed. We could have called him in a lap earlier for his second pit stop, but Carlos still drove a good race.”