Charles Leclerc says Ferrari must look into the cause of its slow pit stops at recent rounds.
Leclerc’s stop to switch from Wet to Intermediate tyres during the F1 Sprint at Spa-Francorchamps was over five seconds and saw him drop a handful of positions.
The Monegasque driver was forced to wait for an extra lap to pit as Ferrari called in team-mate Carlos Sainz first, as he was ahead at the time.
“[I] definitely would have preferred, in an ideal world, to come in straight away, but I think we did the right choice,” Leclerc said.
“We would have lost too much time if I was pitting behind Carlos, so I had no choice. It wasn’t ideal but it’s the way it is.”
Leclerc also had a slow pit stop at the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend, where he was stationary for almost 10 seconds in his box.
At Spa, the added lap on the Wets, as well as the slow pit stop, demoted Leclerc to seventh, where he took the chequered flag.
“What hurt us even more [than waiting an extra lap] is the slow pitstop, this we need to look into because it’s been two races where we’re struggling a bit more with the pitstops,” he said.
“We’ll look into it. As I said many times, when we’re not fast enough we need to maximise all our points and today we didn’t.
“Today, yes, we’re only speaking about one or two points but it’s still one or two points and we need to make sure we maximise everything.”
Leclerc will start Sunday’s grand prix from the head of the field, as he inherited the top spot from Max Verstappen who took a gearbox penalty this weekend.
Amid a difficult season for Ferrari, Leclerc is hopeful that Ferrari can end the first half of the 2023 campaign on a strong note.
“It’s important [to have a strong race], every race is important,” he said.
“Yeah considering we’ve had a strong weekend in terms of pace this weekend compared to others, I think it’s important that we maximise the race tomorrow and that we show solid pace, solid strategy and without many mistakes.”
