Right from the start, it was clear that Charles Leclerc’s race at the Canadian Grand Prix was going to be an uphill battle. Battling a loss of over a second per lap and adjusting engine settings ten times each lap, Leclerc’s frustrations were evident as he shared his ordeal after the race.
Ferrari was already grappling with difficulties after a double Q2 elimination in Montréal. For Leclerc, things went from bad to worse when his power unit started acting up, ultimately forcing him to retire by lap 40. Leclerc revealed, ‘I was losing 1.2 seconds in the straights, which was extremely annoying. And then over that I had like 10 changes per lap on the different engine switch, which was such a frustrating race because you get passed by everybody in the straights.’
Leclerc had entered the Canadian GP on a high note after clinching victory in Monaco, yet the race in Canada brought him back to the harsh realities of racing. ‘We were expecting to be in the mix, which was surprising once we arrived in qualifying and it wasn’t the case. But coming into the weekend, I said it, I think we’ve got to reset every time we come into a new weekend and that’s exactly what we’ve done. Whatever happens the weekend before, you’ve got to reset and cannot rely on the performance of Monaco.’ he noted.
Adding to this, Leclerc disclosed that the issue with his engine was unprecedented, ‘It’s not a new engine, it’s a new issue. We’ve never seen that before. Very strange.’
The troubles for Ferrari didn’t stop with Leclerc. Carlos Sainz also failed to finish the race due to a collision with Williams’ Alex Albon, just 12 laps after Leclerc’s exit. Sainz reflected, ‘There was a lot of contact today so I will need to see if there’s any kind of damage in the car and maybe that was limiting our pace. But what is clear and what is sure is that at any point today we had pace and we were competitive.’
The double DNF was a blow to Ferrari, particularly coming off their strongest weekend. ‘It’s something that as a team, we for sure need to analyse and try to understand because, yes, it’s quite disappointing to come from our strongest weekend to go straight into our weakest,’ said Sainz. He also mentioned, ‘The reality is that we don’t know yet. We haven’t had time to analyse and take any conclusion. So we have a week now before Barcelona to fully understand.’
Reflecting on his own error that ended his race, Sainz admitted, ‘I was starting to take some risks because I could see that maybe in the dry, we were a little bit more competitive and there was potential maybe to score some points if I took some risk and overtook some cars in DRS trains, but I ended up paying the price.’
Despite the setbacks, Ferrari still holds the P2 position in the Constructors’ Championship, though their gap to Red Bull has now widened to 49 points.
The Canadian Grand Prix was a challenging race for Ferrari, marked by significant power unit issues and strategic missteps. Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are now looking to regroup and tackle the upcoming races with renewed focus and determination, aiming to close the gap with Red Bull.
Source: Planetf1
