Ferrari got off to a bad start in the Canadian Grand Prix when Charles Leclerc stacked his Ferrari within a few minutes of the first practice session.
The Monegasque inflicted chassis damage on his car which meant he had to miss the second practice session, because his spare car had not been through the scrutineering process by the FIA.
Lewis Hamilton would later incur damage in the race after hitting the local wildlife in the opening stages, costing him three tenths of a second per lap to Leclerc.
The team capped off the difficult weekend with a fairly decent points haul, but yet another weekend where they have missed out on a victory amid growing pressure on Fred Vasseur to improve their results.
There was another problem that faced Ferrari on the Saturday according to F1 insider Kym Illman, who noticed the FIA getting involved in their pit box.
Ferrari mechanics were angry with F1 paddock club guests during Canadian GP
The pit lane can be a hazardous place in Formula 1 after cars have previously hit mechanics or turned in on each other after an unsafe release.
It’s why mechanics need to be on high alert to avoid any potential issues, especially when the races are attended by a high number of guests.
During qualifying, a rather unfortunate set of circumstances led to liquid dropping from the paddock club down to the Ferrari pit box, according to Illman.
“Some water on the ground of the Ferrari pit box on the Saturday was creating quite the stir. Alessandro Fusaro, who is Charles Leclerc’s chief mechanic, kept looking up at the first-floor balcony after somebody had a glass and kicked it over,” said Illman.
“It trickled down the wall, then ended up on the ground near the mechanics. They weren’t impressed, and one of the FIA people was on the phone quickly to sort out what was going on upstairs. There is a mesh net, but that made no difference.”
Jacques Villeneuve concerned over Ferrari and Charles Leclerc
Ferrari opted to use the hard tyre with Leclerc at the start of the race, but later on the 27-year-old felt it would be better to switch to the medium after his first stop.
Instead Ferrari kept him on ‘Plan B’ as they did not want to do too many laps on the medium, instead switching him to the hard and using the mediums at the end of the race.
Leclerc felt it was the wrong strategy and prevented him from catching the cars ahead of him, having tried to get close to the podium battle.
Jacques Villeneuve raised his concerns because Leclerc and Ferrari were not on the same page, and he believes it could be a sticking point as the season progresses.
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