"Definitely encouraging," Charles Leclerc on Ferrari's Canadian GP turnaround
Jun 20, 2023
Montreal [Canada], June 20 : After the Canadian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had excellent results as they overcame a difficult qualifying session to score a significant number of points for Ferrari while exhibiting improved tyre degradation.
Leclerc and Sainz, who had trouble with tyre life earlier in the season, were able to outlast several competitors who had pitted under the early Safety Car brought on by George Russell's accident on Sunday's 70-lap race.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen made it six victories from eight races in 2023 with a prevailing display during the Canadian Grand Prix.
"I think we couldn't have done anything better. The feeling was good, the pace was quite good, so on that I'm happy. Again, starting from that far behind, that was the best we could do today," Formula 1 quoted Leclerc talking about dropping out in Q2 and starting 10th after grid penalties were applied.
Leclerc responded that this week will be the time for a thorough analysis when asked about the debrief that followed his early qualifying crash, in which the Monegasque's calls to switch from intermediate to slick tyres due to shifting conditions were initially resisted by Ferrari and the switch ultimately came too late.
"Yeah... I mean, we didn't spend too much time on it, because we still had a race to do, which we did now, and today we must be happy about our performance because it's a good performance," Leclerc said.
"The feeling with the car was great, we did a good strategy. All in all, it was a great management of the race and that is very positive. Now from tomorrow we will regroup and obviously analyse the weekend as a whole, and try to understand what we can do better for the future," the Ferrari driver added.
As for the tyre life, Leclerc said: "Yeah, it is definitely encouraging. Again, the feeling with the car... I was really happy, so that is good. Tyre management is good, so it's a positive Sunday."
