Charles Leclerc Defends Ferrari’s Absurd Race Call Despite Rare DNF in Canada

Charles Leclerc won the Monaco GP, and the moment brought tears to all the F1 fans’ eyes. However, after seeing what happened to the Scuderia at the Canadian GP, the Tifosi may be emotional once again. This team, however, is around because of the sorrow. Nonetheless, Charles Leclerc has come out to defend Ferrari despite the Canadian GP DNF and the strategy disaster. But what did Leclerc say?

Ferrari came into the Canadian GP with expectations of fighting for another win. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is similar to Monaco regarding the slow speed corners and traction zones. The big shock came when both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were eliminated in Q2 and started the race in P11 and P12. No one saw that coming and everyone expected it to be a tough race for the Italian team.

As if the Saturday struggles weren’t enough, the race a day later brought even more misery for the Tifosi. On Lap 5, Charles Leclerc started reporting an engine problem followed by multiple complaints around the same. Ferrari then messed up the pit strategy as they put Leclerc on the hard tires as other drivers went on fresh inters with the imminent threat of a rain shower. 

Eventually, Charles Leclerc came in for the intermediate tires, but by then he was a lap down. Ferrari retired the car. Despite all the issues and bad decisions, Charles Leclerc defended Ferrari in the post-race interviews as he suggested the car felt good around the corners and it was the engine issues that were holding them back. 

In the post-Canadian GP race interviews, Charles Leclerc said, “We reset the car during the pit stop and magically it was better, but we don’t know why the torque coming out of corners was inconsistent, so it was impossible to drive.” Looking at the positive side, he added, “We shouldn’t get depressed about these problems and today’s pace, just as we shouldn’t get excited about the victory in Monaco. We need to understand the problems we had yesterday, but today the car was strong in the corners, we were just missing 1 and a half seconds on the straight.”

Ferrari lost massively to McLaren in the constructor’s championship as both Papaya cars finished in the Top 5 whereas even Carlos Sainz retired the car toward the end, causing a double DNF for the Scuderia. Let’s see what the Spaniard had to say.

“A race to forget for the team”: Carlos Sainz on his, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari’s Canadian GP disaster

Carlos Sainz’s Canadian GP weekend wasn’t any better compared to Charles Leclerc. The Spaniard started outside the Top 10 and was stuck with the backmarkers for the whole race. In the final quarter of the race, Sainz went off the dry line, spun around, and hit Alex Albon, who unfortunately had to retire from the race. Sainz kept the car going but was eventually retired from the race as well. A miserable result for Scuderia after the double podium in Monaco.

Carlos Sainz said, “A race to forget for the team. We knew today was going to be difficult because we have been struggling all weekend with grip and car handling. The entire race was on the edge, and when I tried to push in the DRS train to overtake I made a mistake on the kerb  and for that I want to say sorry to the team and to Alex (Albon). We have work to do ahead of Spain to understand what has happened this weekend and make sure we don’t find ourselves again in this situation in the upcoming races. We move on.”

Do you think Ferrari will bounce back as F1 returns to Europe for the triple header?