Charles Leclerc has made a ‘robust’ Ferrari admission following his failed attempt to take victory at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
After topping the first two practice sessions in Austin, Ferrari and Leclerc had high hopes for the rest of the weekend.
Qualifying did not go his way, the pace of the SF-26 disappearing in Q3, starting the race in a disappointing fourth, facing an uphill task to challenge for the win.
The race pace of his car proved to be far better, and slick strategic work combined with searing pace on the hard tyre in the final stint led to speculation that he could have won if he had qualified higher.
After the race, Leclerc confirmed his belief that even with his lightning final stint, race winner Kimi Antonelli was simply too fast.
” I mean, the Hard, as Kimi said, was just a really good tyre, and I could push on it quite a lot,” he said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“So, yeah, I was more interested in trying to… I kept asking my engineer what the pace of Kimi was, but I was probably a bit too optimistic.
“I still wanted to give it a shot, but, yeah, I probably lost a bit too much time with Max and Lando. Even with free air, I don’t think I would have got to Kimi. He was just too quick today.”
A lost victory for Charles Leclerc at COTA?
Asked if this was a victory that slipped away from him and Ferrari, Leclerc highlighted his pace drop off in Q3 as the culprit behind his lost opportunity.
The Monegasque also called Ferrari “not robust enough” across the weekend.
“I mean, if you look at FP1, FP2 and FP3, we were very strong. If you look at qualifying, at the end of the day in Q3, it was extremely difficult to bring the tyres up to temperature, and we probably lost a shot at the victory there,” he said.
“But today Kimi was very strong, so, yeah, as a whole weekend, I think we’re just not robust enough.”
Ferrari will take solace from their weekend in Austin, as it marked a step forward for the Scuderia.
But the loss of grid position in qualifying thanks to tyre warm-up issues proved costly, and Leclerc’s body language in the podium and press conference reflects his disappointment.
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