Having qualified P4 for the 2024 F1 Las Vegas GP, Charles Leclerc had another brilliant start to his race.
As the lights went out in the Sin City, Leclerc jumped Pierre Gasly and teammate Carlos Sainz in turns one and three.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver went on to chase George Russell for the lead of the Grand Prix, but was unable to take the lead.
Woes of graining affected Charles Leclerc
Rather than being able to stick with Russell, Leclerc’s race unraveled with the Mediums on his SF-24 graining considerably. The performance of the Monegasque driver falling off a cliff in the opening stages of the race.
“Yeah, it was. I mean, I felt like I had everything under control, but then from one corner to the other, I lost three seconds per lap, which was absolutely crazy. So yeah, that took me by surprise and we lost quite a lot there, but then on the hard we were strong, but obviously it wasn’t enough to do anything better than third and fourth,” states Leclerc, explaining how the race felt from the cockpit.
The initial battle for the lead with the pole sitter George Russell seems to have aggravated the graining for Leclerc. When asked, Leclerc ruminates affirmatively, “I think so, but it didn’t affect him too much. It did affect me though, but being in dirty air, you pay a lot the price of it. So yeah, that was difficult to manage for me, but I just went a bit too much. I just put too much stress on the tyres in the first stint. So it’s my bad.”
Swap with Sainz
As soon as the Mediums on Leclerc’s SF-24 lost their ideal performance window, Leclerc went on the radio to suggest that they can swap the cars. Leclerc was loosing time and it was apparent that there was no point in holding up teammate Carlos Sainz.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver was asked whether the swap in the first stint could have been done sooner. To which Leclerc responds, a bit perplexed at the nature of the question, “I think I did it on the first straight and I didn’t even have the message from the team. I said it on the radio that I would do it. So yeah, I don’t think, no.”
Silver Linings For Scuderia
Ferrari came to Las Vegas as the favorites to win. However, it was evident after the first ten laps and pit stops, that it was less likely. Regardless, the drivers finished P3 and P4, gaining points on McLaren, who they are fighting for the FIA Formula One Constructors’ Championship.
Leclerc agrees that after the first few laps, damage limitation seemed to be the priority. Although, as soon as they went on the Hards, the performance returned to the SF-24. He states, “When I started to feel the medium going at lap six, I was like, oh, that doesn’t look great for the rest of the race. But then with the Hard, everything felt a little bit more in line with what I expected and then we were in a good place. So yeah, I think if you had told me that we’ll finish fourth after the first stint, I probably would have taken it.”
Contesting for the Constructors’ Championship
Although the Maranello-based team had a less than ideal weekend, they took some major points out of McLaren’s lead. McLaren’s Lando Norris finished the race in P6, while Oscar Piastri brought the car home to P7.
“Yeah, it’s going to be until the very end. I think they are going to be very strong in Qatar, so we’ve got to have a good weekend and I’ll be very surprised if we recover points from them,” stated Charles Leclerc, who has been determined to bring the title back to Maranello.
“But we’ve got to, so we’ll do our best, but I expect it to be tricky.“
Leclerc was also asked whether he was surprised by McLaren’s lack of performance in the Las Vegas GP. The Monegasque driver instead stated that Mercedes were the outlier in the group.
“I think we expected us to be stronger than them, which was the case. We did not expect Mercedes to be that strong, so maybe Mercedes is more the outlier than McLaren was.”
