Charles Leclerc was forced to retire from the Dutch Grand Prix on lap 42, his car was damaged at the start and gradually her behavior got worse. He was overtaken by one rival after another and Ferrari decided to withdraw the car from the race.
Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc’s teammate, finished fifth and described the result as “strong” given Ferrari’s speed at Zandvoort.
Carlos Sainz (5th): “We can be very happy with the fifth place. Today we have the chance to fight for a podium spot, but the reality is that the car was under-speed all weekend.
Only the changeable weather allowed us to do something and we were a little faster than our rivals. In the race we had to fight with rivals who were faster than us. This weekend McLaren and Mercedes have a faster pace than ours, but I finished ahead of them. This is a strong result.
In general, the weekend was disappointing for us, because we lacked speed all days. We must understand the reasons. At the same time, the team can be proud of the fact that, despite a lack of pace, they maximized the result.”
Charles Leclerc (gets off): “I don’t know exactly what the problem is, but I think it’s the result of contact with Oscar Piastri’s car. Although this is strange, because it was very light. But apparently an important part of the aerodynamic body kit was damaged, so the problems were very serious.
When it started to rain and Leclerc went to the pits to change tires, it turned out that the mechanics did not have time to prepare for this, causing a hiccup in the pits.
“I didn’t know how bad the conditions were going to get and initially we expected it to be light rain, but as we got to the last corner of the lap it increased dramatically,” explained Charles. But even if the guys weren’t ready for the pit stop, it was the right decision to make it because if I had done another lap I would have lost a lot more time. I do not regret that such a decision was made.
But Carlos, my partner, is doing well. In general, we expected our car to be able to set a good pace, despite the fact that this race weekend is going to be very difficult for us.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
