Three months passed between Charles Leclerc’s victories in Australia and Austria. The Ferrari driver explained how important this success was to him and suggested returning to training now that there is only one race director in Formula 1.
Q: Charles, you haven’t climbed the top step of the podium in a long time. How much did you need the win in Spielberg?
Charles Leclerc: I definitely needed a win. Every time I enter the podium with a smile on my face I remain optimistic, but after so many difficult races I felt like everything was against me. Finally I managed to reverse the trend and win. It’s nice to feel like a winner again.
Q: In the last laps you had to be a little nervous because of problems with the accelerator. How hard was it to get the situation under control?
Charles Leclerc: Wrong to say I had to be a little nervous, I was very nervous! The throttle was unstable and could get stuck in any position in the middle of a turn. As a result, it was very, very difficult for me in the third corner because I didn’t want the speed in it to be higher than necessary. It was difficult for me to drive the car, not so much at high speed as at low speed. Still, we managed to make it to the finish, which is great.
Q: Apparently the speed of the car was higher in the race than in the sprint. How can you explain it?
Charles LeclercA: I don’t have a full statement. On Saturday night we worked on my riding style and I knew I could improve on the Medium tires. However, it was a surprise how big the step forward was. We will analyze everything to understand the reasons.
Q: How much has the car changed since your last Melbourne win?
Charles Leclerc: Pretty strong. We updated the car first in Barcelona and then in Silverstone. All the innovations worked and I believe we had speed after Australia, with the exception of the Miami stage where we fell back a bit compared to Red Bull. We’ve been fast in the last five races, but we haven’t been able to get all the pieces together. It’s great that I was able to drive a normal race in Austria.
Question This weekend there were reports of insults to the fans. How much does it bother you? Does Formula 1 really have this problem?
Charles Leclerc: That’s just awful. I’ve seen Formula 1’s statement before the race and I hope the championship leadership can do something about it. I don’t know exactly how to fix this problem, but it’s pretty obvious that such things are unacceptable. If we can do something, we must do it.
Q: How concerned are you about your partner not being ready due to technical issues?
Charles LeclercA: Of course the meeting is a concern. We need to find the cause and make sure this doesn’t happen again. In the last five races I had problems twice, and now it happened to Carlos. The team must solve the problem as quickly as possible.
Q: There has been a lot of talk this weekend about the inconsistency of the stewards’ decisions. George Russell even said it would be better if only one race director remained. Do you agree with him?
Charles Leclerc: I think we have always strived for consistency in decision-making. We always strive for the best, but perhaps the presence of two race directors complicates the task.
Is it possible to achieve a good level of consistency? I don’t think so, and at the moment I don’t have a solution for this problem. However, I think with one race director maybe it will be a little easier to solve such problems.
Source: F1 News
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