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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Charles Leclerc said the Dutch Grand Prix was the most difficult race of his season after he struggled for performance throughout the weekend and retired on lap 41 with damage to his Ferrari.
Leclerc collided with Oscar Piastri on the opening lap of the race, breaking the front wing end plate on his car, which then travelled under the floor and caused further damage.
He also lost time on the opening lap of the race when he arrived in the pits for a change to intermediate tyres only to find that his pit crew were not ready.
On top of the issues in the race, Leclerc said it had been one of his most difficult weekends behind the wheel of his Ferrari, which remained difficult to drive throughout practice, qualifying, in which he crashed, and the race.
“In terms of result obviously with a DNF like this it’s not good, but it’s been an extremely difficult weekend,” Leclerc said. “In terms of balance it is probably the most difficult weekend of the season, and driveability of the car.
“We need to look into it, because the last two, three races were getting better on that side of things and for some reason it worsened this weekend.”
Leclerc said the team initially thought the damage to his car was manageable, but opted to retire him from the race once they understood the extent of the performance loss.
“Obviously I already had the first lap when we had the damage,” he said. “I could feel much more than the guys were telling me on the radio.
“Initially it was 5 to 10 points [of downforce], what I’ve been told, but obviously then we realised it was more than 60, and more than 60 is a different category.
“After that, the first lap, it was all uphill.”
Ferrari team principal also explained why the pit crew had looked so unprepared when Leclerc stopped for his first change of tyres.
“The rain was in the last corner and he decided to pit, it was a very late call, but I think it was still the right decision because we were in a much better position than before even with the six or seven seconds we lost in the pit lane,” Vasseur said.
“For sure, if you are 10 seconds behind or five seconds further back on the road and you make the call, it is much easier. But I don’t have to complain about this because it was the right call.”
Source: www.espn.com