Leclerc Warns Issue That Destroyed His Weekend Could 'Be Tricky For Rest Of Season'

Tuesday, 11 June 2024 at 22:00

Charles Leclerc suggested the issue that destroyed his race in Montreal during the ninth round of the 2024 season could be "tricky" for the rest of the season.

The 2024 Canadian Grand Prix was Scuderia Ferrari's worst race of the season. They were one of only two teams that hadn't suffered a single DNF until that point.

However, in Canada, their streak ended with not only one DNF but a double DNF. This also came at a point where Ferrari started closing in on Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship.

Carlos Sainz caused one retirement, which came after a driver's error. But Charles Leclerc couldn't do anything to prevent his own DNF at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. As quoted by pitpass.com, he said:

"Honestly, there's not much more to say apart from the engine issue cost us everything. The bottom line today is that the engine issue is what compromised our race."

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Leclerc later said in a different interview that this issue took away 80 horsepower from his engine and that he was losing 1.3 seconds on straights, which is obviously too much.

Then, Ferrari needed him to pit and reset the whole car with the engine to eliminate the issue hopefully. At that point, the 26-year-old was so far behind that it only made sense to go for a reverse strategy compared to everyone if he wanted to score points.

Many fans laughed at the Italian team for choosing slick tires when everyone was on the intermediates, but Leclerc also stood by that decision. He continued:

"Then, at one point, we decided we tried to go on the slicks. We were losing substantial lap time compared to the other cars, so we tried to go on slicks, knowing that it was our only chance to try to finish in the points."

"We knew there would be a greater chance it wouldn't work, but we had to try something. With the engine issues we had, we would have been out of the points anyway. That was it really, there was nothing to lose. I've got no regrets about that."

The risky bet didn't pay off, and the Monegasque driver had to change back to intermediate tires. Not long after that, he was called in to retire the car.

While he has no regrets about the strategy, Leclerc warned the power unit issue is something that mustn't be overlooked, as it could potentially cause problems in the future.

"After that it was just extremely tricky to do all the engine changes that the team was asking me at the same time. We were still losing a second and a half on the first straight."

"We've got to look into the engine issue because that's going to be tricky for the rest of the season. So, as much as we didn't overreact after Monaco, we shouldn't overreact after this one. But this one hurts."