Charles Leclerc has admitted he’s paid the price with the experiments Ferrari has been conducting at Formula 1’s British Grand Prix as he slumped to a shock Q2 exit.
Ferrari opted to split parts between the drivers in the opening two practice hours in a bid to understand the bouncing issue that’s hindered its recent competitiveness.
Sainz’s time in the SF-24 without the Barcelona updates prompted Leclerc to also revert to the older package, but the final practice session was run on a damp circuit.
That placed Leclerc on the backfoot and he qualified in 11th spot as improvements from other drivers resigned him to enduring a second Q2 elimination in four races.
However, Leclerc harbours no complaints over Ferrari’s decision and insists that sacrificing his own weekend will be beneficial to the team improving in the long term.
“We are just struggling a lot at the moment,” Leclerc said. “I felt like yesterday we learned a good amount for the team by splitting the cars.
“That comes also with the fact that you are not really optimising your weekend and focusing on performance only.
“Obviously, today we lose the Q3 by a tenth and it was the first time I was driving with this configuration on the dry after FP3 in the wet.
“So, all in all, we are we are struggling to optimise the weekend.
“But I think that it will help us long term, what we’ve done yesterday. However, I feel like we’re paying a little bit the price today of it.”
Asked whether the bouncing was better from FP3 onwards, Leclerc replied: “It was a little bit better and that is the main reason why we came back to the old package.”
Leclerc attributed his struggles to match team-mate Carlos Sainz in advancing to the final stage to not having the rubber in the optimum window at the Vale chicane.
“In Turn 13, Turn 15 I went completely straight, the front left was just out the window, I just had very little grip,” he explained.
“So, struggling a lot with the balance in the high-speed and just getting the car rotated. So yeah, that’s where I think most of the lap time was.”
Leclerc has accepted that Ferrari has taken a backwards step since he was victorious in Monaco, but he’s stressed that this weekend has provided valuable lessons.
Asked what has changed over the last rounds, he stated. “I won’t go too much into detail.
“But for sure we’ve lost some performance since Monaco, as a matter of fact, and we are looking into it.
“That’s also why we are doing all these tests.
“We came to the conclusion that it was the right choice to come back, for this weekend, mostly because of bouncing and we’ll take the right decision for the future very soon.
“And what we’ve done yesterday was very helpful to help us take the right decision going forward.”
The Monegasque has proclaimed he’s holding out hope that the expected rain will arrive to spice up proceedings and present Ferrari with chances to make up ground.
“Anything can help us,” he added. “The worst thing will be a normal race with the same strategy for everybody. So, I’m welcoming the rain. That would help us.”
