F1: Ferrari making life way too difficult, says Leclerc

June 18, 2023 Times Europe

Formula One F1 – Canadian Grand Prix – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada – June 17, 2023 Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc during the final practice session REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger

MONTREAL-Charles Leclerc accused Ferrari of not listening to him after he qualified only 11th for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, and said the Formula One team was still making life far too difficult for themselves.

The Monegasque’s anger could be heard over the radio during the qualifying session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and he told Sky Sport’s television that Ferrari had missed an opportunity.

The team waited too long to put on slick tires to make the most of a brief window of dry conditions before the rain got heavier.

“When the track is so dry and we are staying on inter tires, we are not making our life any easier,” said Leclerc.

“We will again discuss with the team, but we need to do a step forward now because it’s not the first time that it happens. We are quite often in the wrong side of making those decisions in those tricky situations.

“I had a clear opinion and a clear intuition and we went for something opposite.

“Obviously its frustrating to accept it first, then you are putting yourself in a very difficult situation from that moment onwards basically it slips away from us … we are just making our life way too difficult”

Leclerc said he had made his position clear to the team and would manage the situation internally.

“Obviously there will be a talk, there will be an analysis and hopefully we will come back stronger from it because it has been quite a few times now,” he said.

“It’s a very difficult Saturday and we always are coming into the Sunday with a very difficult thing to do,” he continued. “Starting P11 it’s not going to be easy to come back. So I’m very frustrated.”

Teammate Carlos Sainz, who crashed in final practice, qualified eighth but was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.