Charles Leclerc says qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix played into his weakness around low-grip circuits, after qualifying over three tenths down on pole-sitter and Ferrari Formula 1 team-mate Carlos Sainz.
The Monegasque could only manage fourth on the grid after saving his Ferrari from a Turn 10 snap as he was tackling the high-speed corners, a result he admitted was disappointing, but not entirely surprising.
He explained that this came as he was taking risks with his driving in an effort to match Sainz, and perhaps needed to think about dialling it back in qualifying in similar conditions to ensure he was less compromised by similar mistakes.
However, he countered that his performance in the long-run simulations during practice had buoyed him – although conceded that starting fourth will make his life more difficult.
“I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised. I was struggling and not feeling well since FP2 with the car. That’s the way it is,” Leclerc said.
“In Q3, the lap was coming very nicely until Turn 10 where I lost the car, but I had to take those risks just because I didn’t have the pace. It’s the way it is. I think P4 is not that bad, but of course it could be better.
“[I’m missing] grip and feeling. Sometimes you like the balance; today I don’t, yesterday I didn’t either. I think it’s probably not one of my strengths, the qualifying in very low-grip tracks.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images
“I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying, in Monza and here I always struggle quite a lot with that. However, it’s the way it is. The only thing that gives me some optimism is that I think I was the fastest guy yesterday in race simulations, which is a good thing, starting from fourth and making my life more difficult.
“I’ve got to think a lot more in order to finish a lap and try to contain a bit more my will to push extremely hard in those qualifyings, because it just doesn’t work out on those on those tracks.
“Today I tried to do that, it was working pretty fine in Q3, however I lost the car in Turn 10, and from that moment, it was very difficult to finish my lap.”
Leclerc explained that for circuits like Mexico, being more circumspect on a qualifying lap might be a benefit to limit the amount of sliding – although reckons this will not be a problem in Sunday’s race.
He added that in retrospect, giving up his seat to Oliver Bearman in FP1 might have hindered him slightly – although conceded that he might not have the same opinion had the weekend been more fortuitous thus far.
“You slide a lot, just because there’s very, very low grip. You’ve just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggled a bit more to do that.
“However, for the race pace, it doesn’t seem to be an issue. It wasn’t an issue in Monza, I don’t think it will be an issue tomorrow, so on that I’m a lot less worried. But in quali it’s a bit tricky.
“I think [having FP1] always helps, especially on a difficult weekend for me. At the end, it hasn’t hurt my performance so much.
“It’s been a difficult weekend so of course, when it’s like this, you want FP1, but we couldn’t have known before.”
