Category: Sports

Charles Leclerc labelled his current Formula 1 hardships as “worse than a nightmare”, as an early call for intermediate tyres at the British Grand Prix cost him any chance of scoring points.

The Monegasque driver was running seventh in the opening third of the Silverstone race having passed Lance Stroll into Stowe on lap 13, and was looking to make greater strides up the order before light rain began to fall over the Northamptonshire circuit.

Although grip was at a premium, with a handful of drivers getting caught out by the slippery conditions, most did not feel the need to pit for intermediates. However, Ferrari called Leclerc in at the end of lap 19 to take the grooved compound for the lower-grip conditions.

He rejoined the circuit ahead of Valtteri Bottas, but was soon passed by the Finn as it became patently clear that the intermediate was not the tyre to be on, and continued to lose time behind the Sauber. When the heavier rain did hit, Leclerc had to stop again as his initial set were already heavily worn.

“[It was] clearly the wrong [strategy]. I’ll look back into it. Obviously, with the decision, with the message I got and the information I had in the car, I felt like it was the right one,” Leclerc explained.

“It was raining quite a lot in Turn 15. I was told that in this lap, the rain was going to be very heavy, so I stopped to try and anticipate.

“However, the rain came eight or nine laps later. That was obviously the end of our race from that moment onwards. Very frustrating, another weekend to forget, and it starts to be a lot.

“It’s very hard [period]. I don’t really have the words to explain it, but it’s been four races that it’s been worse than a nightmare. I hope we can come back soon.”

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Leclerc added that it was difficult to view the opening laps to his race as positive given the outcome, and wanted to review the intermediate call with the team.

He added that the team was in a “tricky situation” after rolling back on its Barcelona upgrade to quell the high-speed corner bouncing, and hoped to find a resolution after coming across a more consistent balance at Silverstone.

“It’s really difficult to look at positives on days like this. I just want to go back with the team, that we analyse the way we are making those decisions on my side, and why we were on the wrong side today,” he said.

“It’s a tricky situation that we’re in at the moment. The upgrades brought us the numbers that we were expecting but also brought us quite a lot of bouncing in the high-speed.

“For a track like this we decided that it was probably better having a bit less performance but having more consistency, and I think that was the right choice.

“Going forward, we’ll analyse all the data we had until now with the two packages and try to understand if there’s anything we haven’t understood yet.

“The bouncing was [better], so the consistency was better.”

Lando Norris was left deflated by two strategy calls at the British Grand Prix, admitting frustration that he and the McLaren Formula 1 team had “thrown away” another potential win.

Although Norris lost position to Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the grand prix, the McLaren driver began to grow into the race and, as the conditions worsened, had a surplus of pace versus the leading duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

The tyre temperature retention of the McLaren persisted through the switch to intermediates, and Norris was able to maintain the lead when the circuit was at its wettest.

However, the Bristol-born racer was undone by the crossover to slicks; first, he ended up losing the lead to Hamilton after stopping a lap later than the eventual winner, and then lost position to Verstappen as his soft tyres began to degrade.

Norris stated after the race: “[He and the team] are not making the right decisions, but at the same time I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions. I hate it. I hate ending in this position and having excuses for not doing a good enough job.”

He later added: “So many things were going well, and we threw it away in the final stop. It was one lap, but also I don’t think it was the lap.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the soft was the wrong one, and I think Lewis still would have won no matter what. Two calls from our side cost us everything today so, especially here, it’s pretty disappointing.”

Norris felt that McLaren had lagged behind the Mercedes duo in the first stint but, when the conditions became more damp, the MCL38s started to improve relative to the Mercedes.

Although he felt that McLaren had not been the outright fastest among the races where it had contended for victory, he underlined his frustration that he had not added to his Miami victory.

“We weren’t quick enough today, I think. When it was completely dry, the Mercedes was a lot quicker. [In damp conditions] maybe we seemed a bit better. But we have work to do.

“I don’t think we’ve still had the weekend where we’ve clearly been the quickest. We’ve always been there and there are battles, but never had ‘the’ car.

“We need to keep working as a team. I need to keep working on my own stuff, and just try and put it together, because there are still so many positives.

“There are so many good things, and so many things in place. But it’s frustrating a few times this season we’ve thrown away something that should’ve been ours.”