Charles Leclerc & Co. Face a Major Dilemma in Their Quest to Catch Up to the Mighty Red Bull: “A Very Hard Thing to Swallow”

19 poles and 5 wins—these are the F1 career numbers of Charles Leclerc. And these numbers themselves prove that the Monegasque is one of the best qualifiers on the current grid. But, they also show another side, i.e., the lack of race pace, which has been sacrificed by Ferrari for a better qualifying position ever since Leclerc debuted with them in 2019.

Ferrari’s troubles with qualifying aren’t new. The team always has to make the call of a better Saturday or Sunday, and it always seems to choose the former. This has cost Leclerc some dear points, as despite getting nine poles last year, he only had three wins. The rest of the six were lost for one reason or another, one of which was the inconsistent pace of the Ferrari. The same has been the story this year so far, with massive tire degradation.

However, the team is now considering shuffling things up and looking for a better pace on Sunday. But they also understand that a good starting position is essential to getting more points. Hence the dilemma. Speaking about this, the team’s performance engineer, Jock Clear, was quoted by Soy Motor as saying, “This is the problem we are trying to solve. We know where it is, but we don’t know how to quantify it. There is a big difference between what happens in ranking and the pace of the race and we don’t know why the difference is so wide.”

“Maybe we should sacrifice the rankings a bit, but it’s a very hard thing to ‘ swallow ’, because ranking is usually key to the race result, so we can’t afford to go further back. So finally the goal is to find out how to improve the race pace.”

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The issue seems to have amplified ever since Leclerc was seen battling the Haas of Kevin Magnussen in Miami. For the team to make a comeback anytime soon, a change in philosophy has been demanded by the Tifosi, and it could arrive anytime soon now.

Charles Leclerc completely trusts the team 

Despite the occasional ups in a series of downs, Charles Leclerc’s faith in the team remains unwavering. The driver backs the team and his new boss, Frederic Vasseur, with his eyes closed.

Backing the team for every decision, the driver was quoted by Formula1.com, as saying, “Obviously, I speak a lot with Fréd and I know what are his middle and long term plans for the team, and I’m completely behind him and I trust him fully. So I’m sure these are the right choices, and it goes in the right direction for the team. So, for that, I’m looking forward to it.”

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Charles Leclerc now stands seventh in the championship with 34 points to his name. Will he and the team be able to make the right calls ahead? Let us know what you think in the comments below.