Charles Leclerc finished fifth in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and the Ferrari driver believes his team made the wrong decisions. But he is also surprised by the lagging performances in Brazil, in particular because of less than ideal settings.
“It was a very long race with a lot of strategic decisions. For the first one we were on the wrong side by stopping. The team thought we could start again in front of Bearman and Hamilton but we started behind them” deplores Leclerc.
“Then there was the red flag so we lost a lot of positions. Afterwards we had to survive until the end of the race. We didn’t have the setting of the century, we’re going to have to look into it because we had some degradation.”
Although he deplores a disappointing result, he is nevertheless reassured to limit the damage against McLaren, and even against Red Bull: “Frustrated yes and no. On the one hand it could have been much worse with the McLarens who had enormous pace this weekend.”
“And in the end that’s the goal, the constructor’s title. We’re doing a better job than them but we can’t be satisfied with that. It wasn’t a good weekend, we didn’t didn’t perform as well as we wanted.”
“But we expected it, we thought that Red Bull would be very strong, even if it was mainly Max who made the difference, but they were stronger than us. McLaren was also much stronger and we only lost four points among the manufacturers, and that’s what we have in our sights. So put together it’s not that bad.”
Finally, the Monegasque salutes Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon who gave Alpine F1 a double podium at Interlagos: “Very happy for Pierre, very happy for Esteban too and for Alpine in general.”
“It’s not an easy season, I often speak with Pierre and Esteban, they deserve it. They had an exceptional race with good strategic choices. But even if they made good strategic choices but the pace was there , they were very fast.”
Carlos Sainz ended his race in the wall after a mistake in qualifying in the morning: “It was a bad day, a bad Sunday, from qualifying to the race. Starting from the pitlane, it’s not possible to make much progress, it’s very difficult to overtake, there’s very little visibility behind the peloton.”
“I made two mistakes, which is not ideal and I’m sorry for the whole team. At the same time, today really, in the wet and throughout the year, the car was very difficult to ride and it cost us a few races.”
“The fact is that the tires don’t suit us and the settings could surely have been done better, but I insist, this year there were no sessions in the wet where we were very fast. But hey , the last three races should be dry, so it’s not something that should worry us.”
The Spaniard received a new engine in anticipation of Las Vegas and its long straights: “Yes, it’s positive and that’s why we did it. Obviously, I would have preferred to start 13th today, knowing that I could sneak into the points.”
“But we decided to sacrifice the start from the pit lane to try to benefit from this engine for the last three races. I hope it goes well, in Vegas we should have opportunities, and then both The latter will be more circuits for McLaren so you have to go there with desire but also be realistic.”
