“Worse than a nightmare”, this is the scenario that he paints and falls like a shadow on the face of Charles Leclerc, who has just got off his SF-24 at Silverstone. From bouncing to strategies, to frustration. TO Silverstone Ferrari has once again entered into crisis. This time the Maranello team preferred to do a comparative test between the old and the new to see better. But the response was not very encouraging. The updated version highlighted several critical issues so Ferrari decided to retrace their steps and race with the SF-24 before Imola. A choice to limit the damage but also an important step backwards from a global perspective. In fact, while everyone seems to be continuing apace with development, Ferrari continues to spin around, waiting for a turning point. But performance wasn't the only topic of discussion at Ferrari this time. Charles Leclerc, in fact, did not finish the Silverstone GP out of the points due to the performance of the car but rather due to the disastrous strategy. A strategy that he himself admitted to having risked, but on the basis of overall incorrect communication from the team.
Leclerc does not hide his disappointment: "Worse than a nightmare"
Leclerc's race was conditioned by one episode in particular: the pit stop on the nineteenth lap to fit intermediate tires on a track that was still rather dry after all. Despite having some doubts, the Monegasque preferred to return to the pits, anticipating the change too early. This strategic choice completely destroyed his race, as Leclerc himself explains.
“We threw away an entire race with the choice of intermediate tyres" Leclerc said. “The rain destroyed our tires. At turn 15 it was raining a lot. I was told that the rain would be very heavy, so I stopped to try and get ahead of the situation. However, the rain came eight or nine laps later. From then on our race ended there.” It is certainly not the first time that Ferrari has made mistakes on these releases. However, the Red team needs to collect points to maintain second place in the constructors' championship.
The last 4 races have been really disappointing. Leclerc collected only 10 points from the Monaco GP to the Silverstone GP. Always very frank in interviews, the Monegasque spoke about the difficult moment he is going through. "I've been living a nightmare for three or four races, we absolutely have to get out of it."
Leclerc on Ferrari's updates and next steps
The Monegasque driver also expressed his point of view on the updates which seem to have brought more problems than solutions, forcing Ferrari to choose between performance and consistency. “It's a difficult situation we find ourselves in at the moment. The updates brought us the numbers we expected, but also quite a few bounces in high speed. For a track like this we decided that perhaps it was better to have a little less performance but more consistency, and I think it was the right choice.”
However, Leclerc concluded on a tone of hope, underlining the importance of analyzing the data and understanding how to improve for the future. “I just want to get back with the team and analyze how we make decisions on my side and why we were on the wrong side today. In the future, we will analyze all the data we have had so far with the two packages and try to understand if there is something we haven't understood yet.”
Source statements: Motorsport.com
