Leclerc: The car was unexpectedly fast in the race

After starting sixth, Charles Leclerc was able to bounce back and climb to the podium in Zandvoort…

Q: Charles, you and Ferrari have worked well together. At the beginning of the weekend you were unhappy with the car. How did you manage to change everything?
Charles Leclerc: Good question. But it is even more interesting to understand why we were nine tenths behind yesterday, and suddenly today we were fast. The car is exactly the same.

Yesterday we fought as hard as we could, but today we were fast. This needs to be addressed. We always analyze the reasons for failed performances, but we also need to figure out when things unexpectedly work out.

I don’t think we have an explanation for that at the moment. Yes, great result. I’m surprised and happy to be on the podium. Now you have to figure out how to perform at your best more often.

Q: Tell us about the last part of the race, when Oscar Piastri was behind you on newer tyres. How easy was it to maintain your pace at this stage?
Charles Leclerc: Not easy. My engineer told me about Oscar’s schedule, who was almost a second faster than me on the free track.

When he closed the gap, I attacked and gained five tenths back. He managed to stay two or three laps behind and put pressure on me, but then he fell behind due to overheating. I didn’t expect to hold on to third place until the finish, but in terms of strategy we did a really good job. I don’t think we could have done more.

Q: This is your second podium in a row, what are you looking forward to in the next races?
Charles Leclerc: I don’t know. If you had asked me this question on Saturday, I would have said it would be difficult. But on Sunday everything is much better. If we can understand what is happening with our car, I am optimistic about the future. But so far we don’t have such an understanding.

Q: Theoretically, the following circuits – Monza, Baku, Singapore – are suitable for Ferrari. How important was it to get a good result here, so that later, not only at the team’s home race, we could ensure a good run of results?
Charles Leclerc: Very important. We had three or four races where we experimented a lot, trying to find the fundamental problems of the car for its development in the medium term.

We will bring new items very soon. Now I can say this because Frederic already said that we will try them in Monza. I hope this will help us to close the gap.

For now, before we update the car, we want to minimize losses, and in the last race we aimed for sixth place. But after three or four laps it turned out that the car was fast and I finished third, earning points that were important for us. Now I hope that new products will help us take another step forward.