Charles Leclerc started on pole in Miami, but was unable to keep Max Verstappen in the first stint. At a press conference after the finish, the Ferrari driver said the battle for leadership had been lost due to the high degradation of the Medium tires and that the team must find a solution to this problem before the next stage.
Q: Charles, how fast was your car in the race?
Charles Leclerc: The car was fast, especially on hard tires. As for the composition of the Medium, after five or six laps, the problems with the front tires started. In fact I lost the race on this stretch because of the rubber degradation – not only did I lose the lead, but I also lost time. We need to understand the causes and eliminate them before the next race.
I was also very competitive on the hard tyres, at least against the Max. After leaving the safety car track, I really believed I had a chance to retake the lead, but the efforts made were not enough.
As I said, we have to analyze the laps on Medium as this segment turned out to be the weak point of our race.
Q: Besides tire wear, what else was the difference between your car and the Red Bull car?
Charles Leclerc: In color! Seriously, we had different speeds on the straights. I think this is due to the characteristics of our machines. Red Bull is quite fast on the straights, while we have an advantage in medium speed and fast corners. However, it came as a surprise to me that in the race we had problems in slow corners compared to Red Bull. Maybe this is because of the tires Medium. As I said, this issue needs to be addressed.
Q: Your lead over Max Verstappen in the individual competition has been reduced to 19 points. Should Ferrari do something about this?
Charles Leclerc: We definitely have to do something in the race with soft compositions – Medium and Soft. In the previous two rounds, Red Bull managed to better control the wear of the softer tires over the course of the race.
In qualifying we always manage to get these compositions within the working range, which helps, but on a long run of circles we have more problems with rubber than Red Bull.
Q: Did you have the ability to defend harder in the episode when Max caught up with you?
Charles Leclerc: When you fight for leadership, you always think about whether it was possible to act differently. Given the low grip in that off-line corner on Friday and Saturday, I didn’t expect Max to hold up there. In reality, the grip turned out to be much higher in the race.
After the finish there are always thoughts that I could have done better, but at the time I thought it was good to stay on the race line and slow down better. That’s what I did, but it wasn’t enough to keep the lead.
Q: Do you enjoy being in the role of a catch-up player or someone who is being overtaken in individual competition?
Charles Leclerc: From the very beginning of the season, I’ve been in the role of someone who is being overtaken. Frankly, I’m quite happy with this turn of events, because it means we’re doing everything right.
However, it is also the case that in the last two races the advantage is gradually reduced. Frankly, I don’t really think about my position and every time I try to be as competitive as possible. Apparently Red Bull currently has the advantage in the race.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
