Charles Leclerc has opened up about Ferrari’s staggering lack of pace and the team orders controversy following his seventh-place finish at the F1 Miami GP on Sunday.
After suffering a DNS in the Sprint race on Saturday, the Monégasque driver managed to make it to the final segment of qualifying, unlike his teammate. However, starting from P8 with the fifth-fastest car on Sunday, he was unable to make any headway during his first stint on the mediums.
Whilst several drivers around him pitted and benefitted from the timing of the Virtual Safety Car, the race had returned to green-flag conditions before Leclerc left the pits. Carlos Sainz, who had pitted four laps earlier, overtook the 27-year-old initially. However, the Ferrari duo managed to pass the Williams driver on Lap 34.
As Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc bolted on the medium and the hard tyres respectively for their final stints, the British driver insisted on a swap, believing that he had the pace to challenge Kimi Antonelli for sixth place. However, with Sainz close behind and inefficient communication, the swap was only made on Lap 38.
Although Hamilton gained a couple of seconds on the young Italian, it seemed unlikely that he would finish ahead of the Mercedes driver. Meanwhile, Leclerc’s tyres started overheating as the seven-time world champion was unable to pull away from him.
The Ferrari pit wall informed the Monégasque that the drivers would swap their positions back on Lap 51. Unfortunately, the team once again didn’t communicate effectively with Hamilton, and he only relinquished his seventh place on the run to Turn 11 on Lap 52. Leclerc ultimately crossed the line in P7, three seconds ahead of his teammate.
Ferrari’s performance far from ideal
Speaking in the print media zone afterwards, Charles Leclerc adopted a diplomatic approach and refused to comment on the already controversial decisions Ferrari made during Sunday’s race at the F1 Miami GP. Nonetheless, he added that their performance wasn’t acceptable and that they need to come together as a team to deliver better results.
“Most of the time I say something. Today, I don’t think I’ll say anything. I think the story is going to be big enough already and we need to do better, that’s for sure.
“Today was not ideal and was far from maximising our potential but we’ve got to regroup as a team and be better.”
Ferrari lacking decisiveness and efficient communication
Stating that he wasn’t frustrated to let Hamilton by after the VSC restart at the F1 Miami GP, Charles Leclerc nevertheless remarked that a thorough discussion would’ve allowed everyone to see the bigger picture. He explained that with 28 laps remaining, he was focused on introducing the hard compound gently in order to extend the tyre life.
Further elaborating that the close proximity of Sainz in the final stint made the decision-making process tougher, the eight-time race winner nonetheless maintained that the Ferrari pit wall should be decisive enough to swiftly execute their strategies without costing the drivers crucial time on track.
“No, I just think we maybe should have discussed a little bit more before doing the swap because obviously you are trying to go to the end with those tyres.
“So I’m trying to do a good job with my tyres and then everything is tricky. I did not expect Carlos [Sainz] to be so close. So all of this made the situation a bit trickier.
“But again I think there’s plenty for us to look at and as I said we need to do a step and we need to be robust enough that whenever we find ourselves in those situations we do better.”
Lack of performance exacerbated everything else
In terms of whether their lack of performance contributed to Ferrari’s poor handling of the drivers at the F1 Miami GP, Charles Leclerc admitted that the SF-25’s noticeable lack of pace added up to the struggles the Italian outfit encountered on Sunday. At the same time, he was perceptive enough to remind that team radios don’t always reveal the entire picture.
“Of course, I mean yes, there’s the frustration already that I was fighting for P8 at the time and I was not making any gains. I was really struggling with the car so there’s the frustration of that and then all the rest and it all adds up.
“So the radio doesn’t always, in this case probably, but the radio is not always the real picture.”
Leclerc wouldn’t have swapped without team orders but understands Hamilton’s perspective
Asked if he considered letting Hamilton through before the pit wall intervened, Charles Leclerc responded that he wasn’t willing to do so without the team orders, given the better longevity of the tyre compound he was on.
Nevertheless, the 27-year-old admitted that he understood why Hamilton insisted on the swap and that he appreciated the Brit taking initiative during a race where the car significantly let them both down. Adding that he would’ve made the same call if the roles were reversed, Leclerc clarified that there is no bad blood between the Ferrari teammates.
“I mean not really because I knew Lewis [Hamilton] was on a medium so if anything he would struggle a bit more to go to the end than me so we had to take care of tyres. But I understand as well that he wanted to try and do something different so I appreciate that.
“I mean I would have done the same thing as if I was him and trying to be a bit more aggressive with the medium tyres.
“There’s no bad feelings with Lewis, not at all. I understand that he wants to try and optimise as much as I want to try and optimise the car’s potential. The car potential is just this, which is frustrating and yeah.”
Ferrari never informed Leclerc what Hamilton was saying on the radio
In terms of whether he was made aware of what Hamilton was conveying to him on the team radio during the F1 Miami GP, Charles Leclerc revealed that he received no such information. He also clarified that he didn’t attempt to fight the decision.
The Monégasque elaborated that he was simply focused on nursing his tyres at the time since he had to defend against Sainz on the cold hard tyres after exiting the pits.
“No, no, no. No, I wasn’t.
“I was obviously focusing on my race, on my tyres. I was trying to really keep them because I already had the first lap fighting with Carlos with the new tyres and that’s not really what I wanted. So then I had to take care of my tyres.”
With regard to Hamilton bringing up his voluntary swap in Shanghai and whether their swap in Sunday’s race was payback for that gesture, Leclerc reiterated that he was unaware of what the discussions were.
“Yeah, I don’t know what the discussions were.”
Improving the car still the first priority
Asked if this is where he and Hamilton should join forces and try to pull the team through, the eight-time race winner acknowledged that they need to present a united front.
Insisting that they are on the same page when it comes to assessing their performance at the F1 Miami GP, Charles Leclerc conceded that their best result would’ve still been a P6 if they had played their cards right.
Implying that the pit wall needs to step up if they want to fully capitalise on a race weekend, the 27-year-old added that their primary concern still pertains to the poor machinery under them.
“We need to; we need to for sure. So I think we will be quite aligned on the fact that today wasn’t the Sunday we wanted and even though the pace is not there, I don’t think there was any miracles.
“If everything would have gone perfectly maybe we would have finished in front of Kimi [Antonelli] but that’s it. There wasn’t much more in the car.
“So I think we need to separate the two things. Yes, we need to fix those issues that probably cost us one position but the other seven or six positions are down to the car and this we need to make it better.”
