Charles Leclerc has left himself reliant on Lewis Hamilton at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Monegasque barely took part in Friday’s running after a crash in FP1.
Leclerc broke the chassis on his SF-25 when he found the barriers at turn three in the early stages of the opening session. That ruled him out of FP2 – Ferrari couldn’t get FIA approval for a rebuild of that scale until the following day.
Besides, the mechanics wouldn’t have time to carry out the repairs before the end of the day’s running. Karun Chandhok felt Leclerc was overly optimistic, trying to make the corner after a heavy lock-up and suffering the consequences.
Reduced to a spectator, Leclerc will have to use Hamilton’s data to inform his set-up choices heading into the weekend. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has not been kind to the 27-year-old – he’s only once qualified higher than 10th here as a Ferrari driver.
Lewis Hamilton’s race pace will concern Charles Leclerc at the Canadian Grand Prix
Hamilton was ninth in FP2 – more than half a second off the pace set by Mercedes driver George Russell. That also put him below the two Williams cars and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
The 40-year-old has struggled to extract the most from the SF-25 over a single lap. He trails Leclerc 7-2 in the qualifying head-to-head.
The greater concern for driver number 16 will be Ferrari’s race pace, or lack thereof. As pointed out by Auto Motor und Sport, Hamilton was again slower than the Williams duo, as well as Pierre Gasly in the Alpine.
Ferrari battled with a high-flying Williams in Miami last month, ultimately finishing seventh and eighth. Trailing the Alpine is particularly damning given that the Enstone outfit are bottom of the championship.
Lewis Hamilton asked Ferrari to make one change before Montreal – they said no
Leclerc will be confident that he can find more performance in the car, as has been the recurring theme this season. He’s on the back foot after extremely limited mileage, but a driver of his talents should be fine.
Ferrari will hope to make gains overnight after their Friday meetings, but on the early evidence, Leclerc will struggle to extend his podium streak to a third race at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Reports claim Leclerc is annoyed by the attention Hamilton is receiving from Ferrari engineers. But that couldn’t be helped here.
It’s not as if his feedback is taking precedence. Indeed, Hamilton has requested a power steering change to counter a slight input delay, but Ferrari have told him it’s not possible to implement in the short term.
