Jock Klia: Without the wind it would be easier to overtake

Jock Klia holds a somewhat unusual position in the Ferrari team – he is Charles Leclerc’s personal race coach and is primarily responsible for his results on the track. After the Canadian Grand Prix, Clea commented on the results of the race, in which his division finished 5th, having regained 14 positions after starting from the last row.

Jock Klia: “Of course we really hoped that at the end of the race Carlos Sainz could get the job done and be ahead of Verstappen. I have no doubt that if Max had some speed reserves left, he would have pulled more than a second to get out of the DRS zone, but he failed to do so.

We understood that Max was on the limit, and we only needed him to make at least one small mistake on the way out of the last hairpin – then Carlos would have caught up with him. But… At least we saw an interesting fight!

When we talk about Charles, we feel that we could have shown a better result. I think 5th place is the minimum we were counting on from 19th position, but it took a lot of effort to get there. Given that the car can handle a fairly high pace, the result under fifth would not suit us. Although we had honestly hoped for more.

This hope is not unrealistic, but Charles was stuck behind Esteban Ocon’s car for a long time and, moreover, the safety car drove onto the track at an unfortunate moment for him. So Charles was very upset that things turned out this way, especially since he was doing everything right himself. But Ocon had a great race and stopped Leclerc, who certainly took little pleasure in staring at the rear fender of an Alpine car for 15 laps.

In theory it would be easier to overtake if there was no wind. But when we got to the track on Sunday, we were convinced of the reliability of the weather forecast, which promised strong winds to blow through the hairpin bends and all along the straight to the last chicane.

The riders said in the morning that there is nothing worse as it will make the DRS work less efficiently. In addition, the resistance of the vehicle in front is reduced. Charles foresaw it would be harder to overtake, and he was right.

But at Silverstone we will be in good shape, especially because Charles has a real fighting spirit, he’s going to fight for the win. Our car is fast on all tracks and I have no doubt that it will be competitive again there. Carlos na Canada should also fly very confidently. So in the next phase we plan to fight against Red Bull.

Charles prepares for each race and realizes he has a chance to take pole and win. Although I don’t wish Max any problems at all, and it would be better if we can win races because of our speed, and not because of the gatherings of rivals. But the reliability of the equipment will be one factor that will influence the outcome of this year’s championship.

It is therefore our job to keep putting pressure on Verstappen, but this requires Charles to continue to drive at a very high level, which he has been doing since the start of the season.