Charles Leclerc: We had a bad mid-season

Second place at the end of the season is Charles Leclerc’s best career achievement, but this year he dreamed of more…

Q: Charles, how hard was the end of the race as Sergio approached?
Charles Leclerc: Very difficult. Especially at the end of the section on Hard, although we had good control of tire wear. At the end of the race, when the tires are worn out, it’s very easy to make a mistake. But we did everything right and were able to keep Perez behind. We had a perfect race.

We were a bit behind Red Bull in some speed and from the start we hoped to influence Perez’s strategy. And everything worked out. Thanks to good tire control, we managed to race with one pit stop, which ultimately resulted in second place.

Q: How hard was it to run the race with one pit stop?
Charles Leclerc: Difficult, especially if you start on Medium. I wanted to expand this segment as much as possible to avoid a close battle, but Lewis was very close in the early laps. I don’t know what happened next, apparently he had to give the position back to Carlos – and immediately it got easier. After that we did great.

Q: Did you plan to run the race with one pit stop from the start? Or would you choose an alternative strategy to Sergio’s?
Charles Leclerc: We immediately planned to pass the race with one pit stop, but we were able to let them make two pit stops.

Q: How do you rate the season as a whole?
Charles Leclerc: Difficult to judge. On the one hand, we have made a huge step forward compared to last year. But I can’t ignore the middle of the season where we had a bad time. Before that we were leading the championship and after that we were significantly inferior. It was the most unlucky part of the championship for us.

We must try to right all the mistakes that have been made this year. We have taken a step forward in choosing a strategy and making decisions. Unfortunately it was not possible to show this on track – the car was not as fast as at the beginning of the season. But we will add speed, I am sure.

Q: What will you be doing in the next 105 days before the first race of the new season?
Charles Leclerc: I will try to free up as much time as possible and plan as little as possible. This year the season was long, next year it will be even longer. Just relax with family and friends.

Q: On Friday you complained to the engineer about the insufficient race pace and in the race in the second segment you were very fast…
Charles Leclerc: After Friday we changed the settings, putting more emphasis on the race, and I started flying a little differently. And in the race it paid off.

Ask Charles, you praised the team for progress in strategy and decision-making, but said the car was not as fast as it was at the start of the season. Was it related to the technical directive that came into force at Spa?
Charles Leclerc: We on the team do not believe that the introduction of this directive has harmed us in any way. We studied this issue and saw no connection.

Ask the season started well for you, but ended not so great. It is clear that a combination of factors led to this. Can you prioritize this list?
Charles LeclercA: There are three main elements. They are difficult to rank, but at some point reliability became an issue, for which they later had to pay fines.

Another factor is the strategy, at a certain stage of the season we made a lot of mistakes when working with tyres. In addition, we lacked stability.

The race in Abu Dhabi went well, but there were downright failed races. And there’s a sense that we haven’t yet understood how to consistently work well with tires all the time. Here are the three main areas we’re focusing on as we prepare for next year.