Charles Leclerc admitted his weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix was far from perfect, but insisted he’s not looking to “prove anybody wrong.” The Ferrari driver, who finished P5, wasn’t happy with the team’s strategy calls throughout the “frustrating” race around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“We are a little bit on the back foot, but that’s more to do with the starting position than the actual pace, because the pace wasn’t too bad,” Leclerc told reporters on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m frustrated that I didn’t put everything together, but apart from that, [nothing] really affects me,” he went on, seemingly referencing the heated radio messages exchanged with his race engineer.
“I think the team knows where I stand and knows what I want to do. That’s what matters most to me,” he said. It comes a couple of days after speculation swirled that team boss Fred Vasseur’s future at the team was in doubt.
“I would rather just focus on our work,” Leclerc continued. “We’re not here to try and prove anybody wrong. We’re just trying to do our job the best we possibly can, and we’ll be happy if we do it. We didn’t exactly do everything right this weekend, so I’m looking forward to the next race to try and turn that situation around.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Vasseur also addressed Leclerc’s strategy concerns, telling reporters that it was simply “too optimistic” to do a 50-lap stint on one set of tyres.
“I discussed it with Charles after the race. He’s right that we don’t have that much to lose when you are behind the pack. We can take some risks.” However, he conceded that the team was “probably missing some laps during the weekend to estimate it.”
The Monegasque missed the second practice session in Montreal after a crash in FP1 left him with chassis damage.
Leclerc was leading opening practice when he locked up into Turn 3 and under steered into the grass on the outside. He hit the wall, damaging the front-left corner of his car. The incident prompted a red flag, and he ultimately ended the session in 10th.
It was followed by a poor qualifying session, in which he finished P8 despite his belief that he was in the fight for pole position. During his final flying lap, he was caught out by a snap at Turn 7, which he blamed on the dirty air from Isack Hadjar’s car ahead.
“I’m just very, very disappointed with Q3 because I think that the beginning of the lap was worth, or at least good enough, to be fighting for pole position and we are now starting P8, so very disappointed with that,” he told reporters on Saturday.
