Despite starting on pole for the fourth year in a row, victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix remained elusive for Charles Leclerc. While a clean getaway and decent pace on the mediums allowed him to build a six-second lead over Oscar Piastri, the advantage disappeared quickly after the first round of pit stops as the Australian executed a brilliant overtake down the inside into turn 1 at the start of lap 20. Although Leclerc managed to stay within the DRS range for nearly thirty laps, running in dirty air and the MCL38’s straight-line speed neutralised his attempts to retake the race lead.
Speaking afterwards, Leclerc confessed that his odds of victory plummeted as soon as he switched to the hard compound tyres. He clarified that his lack of high-fuel running on Friday led them to opt for a setup choice that proved to be challenging to handle during the race. Admitting that he was struggling to keep the rear tyres alive towards the end, the Monégasque revealed that he came close to crashing against the walls in a couple of corners. Regardless of the disappointing results for the team after missing out on the win and Carlos Sainz’s DNF, he commended Piastri and the Woking-based team for doing a better job on Sunday.
“I think as soon as we put the hard tyres. On the medium, we were very competitive and the car felt good. Unfortunately, we didn’t do any high-fuel running on my side in FP1, FP2, and we went for a setup direction that maybe in the race was a bit more difficult to manage, especially on the hard tyres. I was really struggling to just keep those rear tyres, and towards the end, I really thought that, yeah, in one corner or two, I thought that I would put it in the wall. It was very close.
“But second, today, McLaren and Oscar have done an exceptional job and have been better than us. It’s obviously a huge shame for Carlos in the last lap, but hopefully everybody is okay. But, yeah, not obviously another great day for the team.”
When asked how their cars were different on race day, Leclerc referred to McLaren’s lower downforce package and elaborated that the superior straight-line speed of the MCL38 made it extremely difficult for him to get close enough to make a pass on Piastri.
He was honest about his misjudgment and admitted that he didn’t defend hard enough, assuming that he would be able to overtake the McLaren later on when his tyres were ready. Despite falling short in the end after a long and hard-fought battle, the seven-time race winner appeared optimistic about their performance gains in the past couple of races and proclaimed that the team intends to keep their momentum going.
“It’s been a pretty frustrating race. We ran two different configurations. Obviously, they had, I think, a lower downforce package. We had a bit more downforce, which made us quite quick in the castle section. However, in all the straights they were flying. And that’s probably where I lost the race. I misjudged that.
“And when Oscar overtook me into turn 1, I was not too worried. I just wanted to stay within the DRS, keep my tyres, and attempt an overtake later on. However, this opportunity never really arose again, just because we were too slow in the straights. Yeah, that was a small misjudgment, which had a big consequence. So sometimes it hurts, and it does today. But it’s the way it is.
“On the other hand, it’s been a pretty good last couple of races in terms of performance. This weekend hasn’t been great, because obviously we’ve got Carlos that was in a good position that didn’t manage to finish the race. But within the team, we are in a good position, in a good mood, and we need to keep pushing in that direction.”
In terms of running over thirty laps on the hard tyres and dealing with the consequences of dirty air the entire time, Leclerc confessed that he started to struggle from the very beginning of his second stint. He further added that the Ferrari didn’t have the same grip on the hard compound that the McLaren had, which prompted him to dedicate his efforts towards tyre management.
While he expected the car’s performance to improve in the final stages of the race, Leclerc remarked that the influence of dirty air ruined his tyres earlier than usual and rendered his attacks against the quick McLaren on the straights futile.
“Straight away. Straight away. As soon as I got out of the box on the hard, we just didn’t manage to find the grip that McLaren had on those tyres. And then again, when Oscar overtook me, I was quite calm in the car. And I just was focusing on my tyre management, which I did.
“And after 10, 15 laps, I thought that everything was coming together and that maybe towards the end, we will be in a better place. But with the dirty air, I think for 20, 25 laps towards the end, my tyres were completely gone. And again, they were just too quick in the straights for me to attempt anything.”
With regard to the question of whether Piastri’s move for the lead caught him by surprise, Leclerc responded that he was entertaining that possibility when he spotted the Australian in his mirrors. Furthermore, the Ferrari driver explained that his cold tyres didn’t provide him the adequate grip needed to mount an aggressive defence anyway.
“Not really by surprise, because he wasn’t completely straight behind me. He was a little bit on the left. So I could see in my mirrors that he was there and that it was a possibility for him to go there. But again, I couldn’t really be super aggressive. I still had cold tyres. I was really struggling to put those tyres into temperature.”
Leclerc was also asked to elaborate on how his six-second lead over Piastri in the first stint disappeared after the pit stop. He replied that they were not anticipating any successful undercuts because they expected the hard tyres to take significantly longer to warm up.
Unable to account for the loss of four and a half seconds, the 26-year-old affirmed that Ferrari would analyse the data to determine whether McLaren managed to bring their hard compound in the right window faster or whether he lost the time anywhere else on the track.
“We expected the undercut today to be a very difficult thing to do, just because we thought that the warm-up on the hard would be extremely difficult for some reason. I don’t really have the explanation yet because I haven’t gone into details. I just jumped out of the car, but we’ve got to look into how the gap went from six seconds to one and a half, because that is definitely not what we expected. And that is a lot.
“Even on a track where undercuts are big, it’s still four seconds and a half or four seconds – a lot of lap time loss, which I don’t exactly know why and where we’ve lost this lap time.
“So this will be an analysis. But when we speak about that amount of lap time, I think it will be straightforward. And we’ll see very quickly whether they just had a much better warm up with the hard than us or whether we’ve lost it anywhere else.”
On the topic of whether Ferrari has the car to compete for the win at the remaining races, Leclerc answered that it’s too early to draw any conclusions. Given the unique nature of tracks like Monza, Baku, and Singapore, he stated that they can only assess the effectiveness of their upgrade package when they arrive in Austin.
Lamenting the missed opportunity in Baku, Leclerc emphasised that it’s imperative for Ferrari to maximise their points haul and capitalise on every opportunity in Singapore since the track is expected to suit the SF-24.
“Not yet. I think Baku, Monza, and probably Singapore as well. These three races have very specific characteristics for cars. So we’ve got to wait maybe for Austin that will be a bit more of a normal track again to understand whether we’ve done the steps forward we expected. But in these last two races plus Singapore, we need to maximise the points and take opportunities if we have opportunity to actually win races. Today, I felt like we’ve missed that opportunity.”
