Charles Leclerc has conceded that being “nowhere” on pace during Formula 1‘s British Grand Prix was more detrimental to his race than his premature move to slicks.
Leclerc, who lined up sixth on the grid, registered a second consecutive point-less outing at Silverstone as he trailed home in 14th place, the last driver on the lead lap.
As was the case 12 months ago, Leclerc was unable to rescue a result with what proved to be an ill-timed switch to slicks on a damp track that cost him huge ground.
With the rain having subsided as the formation lap began, Leclerc was among the group who chose to dive into the pits before the start to discard their Intermediates.
However, a deluge on Lap 13 soaked the track and ensured the entire grid – including those who had remained on the Intermediates – had to pit to receive fresh rubber.
But while he was back in the mix once DRS was enabled when the track dried, the Monegasque experienced two wide moments on slicks that lost him several places.
Leclerc admitted that such mistakes, combined with his general struggle to extract pace in the changeable conditions, hindered his race more than his earlier gamble.
“I mean, for sure this did not help, however we were kind of nowhere the whole race,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“And when I say nowhere, it’s like really nowhere. I was a second off and on top of that I was doing lots of mistakes.
“I was really struggling to keep the car on track. So, it was an incredibly difficult day.
“I need to analyse what was going on. What did I do in terms of tools, in terms of set-up, in terms of driving that made everything worse. Because today was extremely difficult.”
Leclerc takes responsibility for wrong tyre call
Leclerc revealed that it had been his call to abandon a promising starting position, citing that he underestimated how long the track would remain wet in some places.
“No, I’m not happy with the decision. That was my decision,” he said. “I thought the first and second sector was kind of for slicks. The third sector was wet.
“But I expected it, I had seen it. But I expected the track to dry up a lot quicker. It did not.
“And I think we were quite a few to have done that mistake of thinking that it would dry up quickly. This is part of the reason why we had a bad race.
“But I would say that the biggest part was the lack of pace. And on that I want the answers before going back home. So, I’ll work hard to try and understand what was going on.”
Leclerc ended up a substantial 34 seconds behind Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who came up one place short in his quest to add another podium on home soil.
And although Hamilton was also not content with his race, Leclerc accepted the seven-time F1 champion handled the SF-25’s limitations in the wet better than he did.
“I didn’t see Lewis’ race, but for sure he was much, much stronger than me,” Leclerc acknowledged.
“The only positive I would say is that whenever you’ve got Lewis in the same car. And being much faster than me today.
“There are definitely some things that I would learn from a day like this. Because when you struggle as a team and the two drivers are struggling.
“It’s more difficult to know what’s going wrong. There we’ve got an example of extreme in both ways.
“Because until now, I kept saying that we were maximising the package that we had. But clearly today, I did not maximise the package that I had, at least on the Sunday.
“Very often on the Saturday I think we felt like we left something on the table. Very often coming to Sunday we always put everything together.
“And since the beginning of the season I don’t have much more to say. But today clearly I left points on the table. That’s not nice.”
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