Charles Leclerc admits that Ferrari is in the dark as to why its car is not delivering the results expected at the start of the campaign, and more specifically why its tires are not working.
Ferrari had pretty high hopes that Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz would brighten the post-Sebastian Vettel era this year, and while the team wasn’t expecting wins in 2021, it can understandably be disappointed with their performances so far.
Only a podium between the two drivers, which Sainz took second in Monaco, is bad form. That came to a head last weekend when neither of them got into the points at the French Grand Prix.
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Ferrari looked upset Paul Ricard on the cloudy and windy Circuit, and tire wear was really worrying. Leclerc admits that the team at the Styrian Grand Prix this weekend doesn’t know what went wrong.
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“It was very, very, very difficult. We fought like crazy as a team in qualifying [and] we’re pretty competitive, but it wasn’t a particularly strong weekend for me personally, ”he said.
“Our cars were struggling a lot and we’re trying to figure out why we have that. We more or less know the reason, but we don’t have a solution at the moment. We are working hard to understand the full reason for this.
“It’s very strange that sometimes it just happens on a Sunday and we as a team don’t really expect it to happen on race day to understand why it happens.”
When asked why the tires are particularly bad in France and whether the problem could be fixed before the race this weekend in Austria, Leclerc said: “We think it was most specific to France, but it’s not impossible that we won’t find it here again or next weekend.
“We don’t know for sure. That is the whole job of the research we are doing, trying to understand the exact meaning of where we have this problem and why it becomes more serious on some stretches than on others. “
Tire problems for Ferrari
It’s been almost two years since Ferrari last won a Grand Prix and the team firmly believed that 2022 – when the F1 rule changes come into effect – will be the season when it is full of Red Bull and Mercedes will be competitive. In fact, resources are being put into the new car, which leaves less flexibility in developing the one currently in use.
The team is currently working behind McLaren for the honor of being the third best designer on the grid. A number of teams suffered tire wear last time in France, but Ferrari seemed to be struggling more than most. Sainz started fifth in Le Castellet and Leclerc seventh. They finished 11th and 16th.
Frustratingly for Ferrari, this has happened more than once this season. The jumping horse nailed qualifying only to eat its front tires on race day.
“Hopefully we’ll find something that will help us for the race,” said Leclerc, referring to the Styrian Grand Prix on Sunday. “We have a very narrow window in which we managed to get the tires running.
“Somehow it’s very difficult for us to be in that particular window for them to work. We clearly failed to put them in that window [in France] and we just had to struggle with the deterioration more than others. “
Friday’s first practice did little to allay fears that Ferrari – literally, if you look at those front sets – is slipping away from its rivals. Leclerc was 10th in FP1 and Sainz one position behind in an eventful run in which the Spaniard spun at the exit of Turn 1 and at the end stood in front of the pit exit of the Red Bull Ring.
In FP2, Leclerc admitted on team radio that it was “difficult to get the tires running” while Sainz did another lap. The two did worse than their first training session. An indication of other driving problems with this Ferrari that have not yet been resolved.
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