Ferrari’s championship aspirations appeared to take a big hit after Carlos Sainz crashed out in the second segment of qualifying and during the race at Interlagos. However, despite having a car that was tricky to manage, Charles Leclerc managed to finish ahead of both McLarens at the dramatic rain-affected São Paulo Grand Prix. Starting from sixth on the grid, the Monégasque took the chequered flag in fifth place.
Speaking afterwards, Leclerc was asked to share his opinion on whether the SF-24 was struggling to find pace on the wet and intermediate tyres throughout the race. Shouldering partial blame for their relatively underwhelming performance, the 27-year-old explained that the set-up direction, despite being the incorrect one, was taken after his deliberations with the team.
Revealing that the car—on fresher rubber and low fuel—was somewhat easier to control over a single lap than during the race, Leclerc admitted that Ferrari’s only positive takeaway from Sunday was managing to keep the McLarens behind on a race weekend where they looked particularly quick.
“Like, really, not at all. I think I’m partly to blame for, because obviously we decided the set-ups together with the team, and today I wanted to go into that direction.
“However, it was the wrong run, for sure. And today, pace was just not there, whether it was in qualifying, where I think in qualifying we actually weren’t too bad.
“With the new tyres, low fuel, you can extract more out of the car, but in the race we were nowhere. And more than being nowhere, it was extremely difficult to drive, extremely difficult to not do any mistakes.
“At the end, looking at all this, the only thing we could be a little bit satisfied of is being in front of the two McLaren and to only lose four points in the Constructors’ [championship] is a big damage limitation on a weekend where they seem to be so strong.
“So, yeah, now we need to put everything together for the last three races of the season.”
On the topic of him being the first driver to make a pit stop on lap 24, Leclerc was asked to confirm whether he merely wanted to continue his charge on a fresher set of intermediate tyres. Labelling the decision as a “mistake,” he nonetheless commented that making accurate calls during a frenetic race interrupted by heavy rain and on-track incidents is a difficult task for the pit wall.
Stating that he wanted to recover some ground in free air after being stuck in the pack, Leclerc added that the timing of the pit stop wasn’t ideal since he encountered traffic afterwards. Moreover, referring to the Safety Car that allowed multiple drivers to pit on lap 27, the Ferrari driver asserted that the positions they lost there made it difficult for him to finish higher up than he did.
“That was a mistake.
“It is to be said as well that on a race like this it’s very difficult to not do any mistakes in terms of strategy, because there are so many calls that you need to do. And if you look, I think only the top three did no mistakes on a race like this. We were on the other side of things.
“We stopped. I wanted free air, so I asked the team to find free air. They boxed me that lap, but unfortunately the pit stop was a lot. Not the pit stop, but the time, the pit entry, and the pit exit time in the wet was a lot longer than what we thought.
“And I ended up in the middle of traffic with Ollie [Bearman] and Lewis [Hamilton], and from that moment I knew that we were losing so much. Then there was a Safety Car. We lost like three or four positions there, so then it was a lot more difficult.”
With regard to the questions of whether it was confusing when the drivers ahead took off to start a second formation lap after the aborted start and if the team had explained the reasoning behind the move, Leclerc confessed that he was hesitant to leave the grid box. Furthermore, he disclosed that the team instructed him to follow the others in order to avoid further disorganisation on the starting grid.
“Well, yeah, I didn’t want to go, but then the team told me, ‘go because otherwise you will create a massive mess.’
“But yeah, clearly it wasn’t [the right move]. Yeah, it wasn’t ideal.”
When asked whether the new track surface at Interlagos was more difficult to drive on in the rain than the old one, Leclerc, in a candid fashion, responded that the resurfaced tarmac didn’t facilitate better driving conditions.
“I didn’t drive a lot on the old one. I think the last race was in 2016. I was not there yet.
“But yeah, I think it made it very difficult. I think honestly the tarmac this weekend wasn’t a step forward.”
In terms of what his expectations are for the upcoming race in Las Vegas, Leclerc responded that he hopes to replicate his strong performance from last season. However, highlighting the progress they have made in the area of tyre management, the eight-time race winner expressed caution regarding their step backward when it comes to extracting performance in colder temperatures.
Stating that he expects to encounter tyre warm-up issues in Las Vegas, Leclerc nevertheless asserted that the Italian marque would utilise the long break ahead to optimise their package since the circuit suits the traits of the SF-24 reasonably well.
“We were very strong last year. So, I hope we can be as strong.
“It is true also, and I was thinking about that earlier, that this year we’ve done a big step in tyre management, which means that we also left something behind in cold conditions and tyre temperature, just like today was. And Las Vegas is a bit of that scenario as well.
“So let’s hope we can keep that. We can work in those two weeks to prepare it properly and to be at a good level in Las Vegas, even though it’s going to be difficult for tyres. But characteristics of the track is better for us.”
A journalist wanted Leclerc to further reveal how confident he is about their performance in Las Vegas. Remarking that he is optimistic about their prospects in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, the Monégasque driver confessed that they expect the race weekend in Qatar to be more about damage limitation.
With their long-term rival McLaren sitting 36 points ahead in the championship table, Leclerc reiterated that Ferrari intends to capitalise on the remaining races and take the championship trophy back to Maranello after sixteen years.
“Let’s say I’m more optimistic than not and I still believe that we can do really, really well in Las Vegas.
“Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi are the two races where I think we can do well.
“I unfortunately think that Qatar will be a bit more difficult and it will be more about damage limitation.
“But, still three races to go and hopefully we can make the most out of it and beat McLaren in the process.”
