Charles Leclerc has insisted Ferrari shouldn’t “overreact” to a disappointing Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix where an engine hitch contributed to a double retirement.
Leclerc made a strong start from 11th to displace RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and advance into the points places, but it then transpired that he was nursing an engine gremlin.
The Monegasque was informed over the radio that the issue was costing him around five-tenths on the straights as Alex Albon breezed past once DRS was activated.
Ferrari utilised a mid-race Safety Car to allow Leclerc to reset his SF-24 car in his pit box and decided to gamble on the improving track conditions to move onto slicks.
However, the choice would backfire as a small rain shower arrived and Leclerc would revert to the Intermediates before being instructed to come into the pits to retire.
But Leclerc has shielded Ferrari from criticism as he admitted that the power unit fault meant that taking a risk represented the last resort for his dwindling prospects.
“Honestly, there’s not much more to say apart from the engine issue cost us everything,” Leclerc said.
“Then at one point we decided we tried to go on the slicks when we knew it was going to be more chances that it wouldn’t work.
“But we had to test something because anyway with the engine issues we had, we would have been out of the points anyway and that was it really.
“After that, it was just extremely tricky to do all the engine changes that the team was asking me at the same time.
“We were still losing a second and a half [on the] first straight, so we’ve got to look into the engine issue because yeah, that’s going to be tricky for the rest of the season.”
Ferrari entered the annual round at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve riding a wave having triumphed in Monaco to cut the gap to Red Bull in the championship to 24 points.
Leclerc has stressed that the Maranello-based squad should not be irrational about a disastrous weekend which comprised its drivers failing to make Q3 and retiring.
“So as much as we didn’t overreact after Monaco [with the win], we shouldn’t overreact after this one,” he continued. “But this one hurts.
“It’s big points for the team with the two cars DNF’ed that we are going to lose against our competitors. And yeah, engine-wise, it’s something that we need to look at.”
But Leclerc has conceded that Ferrari must understand the reasons behind the team being unable to live up to its pre-weekend billing as favourites to win in Canada.
“I think we shouldn’t overreact with the pace of the car. I mean, you’ve got good weekends, you’ve got bad weekends,” he reiterated.
“Yesterday, we missed Q3 by three hundredths. We were definitely not feeling good with the car and we’ve got to work on that and try to understand what went wrong.
Today, I wouldn’t say the pace was bad. I mean, if you look at the first stint with a second and a half slower engine, I think we weren’t that bad in corners and we were strong.”
