Leclerc has had two disastrous tyre calls in the past four races
Charles Leclerc says his recent run of misfortune has been “worse than a nightmare” after the Ferrari Formula 1 star finished out of the points at Silverstone.
Having qualified only 11th Leclerc gained three places at the start. However, he was one of four drivers to make an early stop for intermediates only for the track to dry and his tyres to be worn out by the time the rain returned.
He tumbled down the order and eventually finished a frustrated 14th, his third non-score in the four races since his memorable Monaco win.
The Silverstone disaster followed an engine-related retirement in Canada after similarly disastrous call for slicks in the wet.
He earned a modest fifth place in Spain, and was then 11th in Austria after first lap wing damage led to a first lap stop. Two points for seventh in the Spielberg sprint was little consolation.
“It was clearly the wrong one,” he said when I asked about the Silverstone strategy choice. “I’ll look back into it, obviously. With the decision, with the message I got and the information I had in the car, I felt like it was the right one.
“It was raining quite in Turn 15, I was told that in this lap the rain was going to be very heavy, so I stopped to try and anticipate. However, the rain came eight or nine laps later.
“So that was obviously the end of our race from that moment onwards. Very frustrating, another weekend to forget, and it starts to be a lot.”
Regarding his recent run of misfortune he said: “It’s very hard, it’s very hard. I mean, I don’t really have the words to explain it, but it’s been four races that it’s been worse than a nightmare. So I hope we can come back soon.”
“It’s very difficult to look at positives in days like this. I just want to go back with the team, and we will analyse the way we are making those decisions on my side, and why we were on the wrong side today.”
Ferrari’s Silverstone form was not helped by the choice to go back to the Imola aero spec after the newer floor promoted bouncing at high speed.
“It’s a tricky situation that we are in at the moment,” said Leclerc. “The upgrade brought us the numbers that we were expecting, but also brought us quite a lot of bouncing in the high-speed. And for a track like this we decided that it was probably better having a bit less performance, but having more the consistency.
“And I think that was the right choice. Going forward, we’ll analyse all the data we had until now with the two packages, and try to understand if there’s anything we didn’t understand yet with the new one.”
Leclerc conceded that the more recent update might work in Hungary, where there are few fast corners.
“Yeah, it’s a very different layout. That’s why I think we still have to assess all the information we’ve got on this new package and old package, and take the right decision, as it might not be the same as here. And yeah, we’ll look into it.”
Adam Cooper F1 