Ferrari will not ask Leclerc to drive more carefully

Jock Klia, chief race engineer at Ferrari, has learned a lot about his character during his time with Charles Leclerc, as he has also been responsible for his professional training since 2019. According to Klia, the mistakes and mishaps his 25-year-old ward makes on the trail reflect to some extent his psychological state.

In Melbourne, Leclerc retired on the first lap of the race after a collision with Lance Stroll, in Baku he damaged his car during qualifying for Saturday’s sprint, although he still started from pole position, and in the final of qualifying in Miami he had a more serious accident, which prevented him from moving higher 7th starting position.

However, Ferrari is not going to call on Charles to fly more carefully and calmly. Asked about the Monegask’s mistakes, Jock Clea replied: “Perhaps this reflects his psychological state to some extent, because he has to compete against the Red Bull drivers, who obviously have faster cars. He just strives to show what he’s worth as a racer, but in the end, of course, the laws of physics are stronger.

But we’re not going to tell him, “Listen, Charles, we have to be quiet.” During the season he shows excellent results in qualifying, allowing him to start from very good positions in many races, as was the case in Baku in particular.

In Miami the car wasn’t too difficult, it worked quite effectively, so he felt the chance to fight for pole position, but he probably overdid it a bit.

While both Scuderia drivers complained last weekend about the SF-23’s unnecessarily nervous behavior, Klia is unwilling to agree that it’s down to the car’s shortcomings.

“This is typical for all cars. Max Verstappen had the same problem in the qualifying final, he recalls. – The consequences were not so dramatic, but he had to break the circle, because the car lost its stability when attacking the same curb in the 6th turn.

When a ground effect powered car attacks a curb, it almost immediately loses a very significant percentage of its downforce at some point. We saw Charles’s Ferrari hit the underside of the curb in turn 6, and at the same time it is very difficult to control the car.

The irony is that this confirms that we were able to achieve an improvement in the SF-23’s behavior at high speeds. In qualifying, Charles felt he could battle for pole position on the last attempt, but he just drove more aggressively than he should have.