– Charles Leclerc is still searching for the causes of his disappointing weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix. Compared to teammate Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari driver consistently lacked pace in Montreal. To find answers, Leclerc is now analyzing his teammate’s data. The Monegasque spoke after the race of the “most difficult weekend” of his Formula 1 career so far.
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Despite the problems, Leclerc still finished in fourth place. He benefited, among other things, from the retirement of George Russell as well as from a strategy error and also a retirement at McLaren.
Hamilton significantly stronger than Leclerc
Already in the sprint qualifying, Leclerc had to concede defeat to Hamilton within the team. Although he was initially ahead of the Briton in the sprint, he fell back later on. While Leclerc said he struggled with his Ferrari, Hamilton achieved his best result so far since moving to Scuderia in Canada and finished the race over 30 seconds ahead of his teammate.
Photo gallery: Montreal: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
“It was a terrible weekend,” Leclerc explains after the Grand Prix. “I am really disappointed with my performance. It was probably the most difficult race of my entire Formula 1 career. The pace I had all weekend was probably best on Sunday. But I still haven’t understood why I had such big difficulties this weekend.”
Above all, Ferrari found no solution on his side in dealing with the tires. “We could never keep the tires in the right operating window. That had nothing to do with the car. Lewis did an incredible job and congratulations to him. On my side, I just had big problems,” says Leclerc.
Leclerc analyzes Hamilton’s working method
Despite the disappointing performance, the Ferrari driver is trying to take insights from the weekend. “The good news is that I have Lewis in the same car and can look at what he did this weekend to find answers as to why I had such difficulties.”
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Particularly interesting for him was the different preparation for the race weekend. According to Leclerc, Hamilton refrained from using the Ferrari simulator before a Grand Prix for the first time this year. Hamilton himself did not consider this factor and instead referred to the changing conditions in Montreal, which helped him with the adaptation.
Montreal remains a problem track for Leclerc
Leclerc also sees some track characteristics as a cause of his difficulties. “Montreal is not a track where I have ever felt particularly comfortable,” explains the Ferrari driver. His only podium in Canada so far was in 2019. “Similar to Melbourne, there are many corners in Montreal where I have big problems with my driving style. The car just doesn’t feel good to me there.”
Additional technical problems on Friday made it difficult to get into the weekend, according to Leclerc. Above all, he had big difficulties with the brakes and tires to build a consistent rhythm.
“When you also consider the problems from Friday, I could never really build trust. On Saturday, it was almost only about managing the tires. On Sunday, it was not quite as extreme, but I still never felt really in rhythm.”
Ferrari still second in the constructors’ championship
In the drivers’ standings, Leclerc is still in third place with 75 points and currently has a three-point lead over Hamilton, who is in fourth place. Ferrari is currently second in the constructors’ standings, 72 points behind Mercedes.
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