Leclerc hints at what might have led to Ferrari's unexpected lack of pace at Baku
On the back of Ferrari's tough weekend at Baku, Charles Lelcerc has hinted what might have impacted the Scuderia's SF25 that saw the Italian team struggle for outright pace both in short and in long runs.
Despite a promising start for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari struggled for pace all through the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Monegasque started on Pirelli's medium tyres and pitted early to try and undercut some rivals.
By contrast, Hamilton elected to start on the hards, and with tyre degradation having been minimal, he managed to extend his opening stint. He might have waited for a safety car interruption, which could have provided him with a cheap pit stop, but it did not materialize.
When the Briton pitted, he rejoined the track in P9, displayed a very strong pace on his fresh tyres. He quickly closed in on Leclerc, who let him past, but the seven-time world champion was unable to make any further progress as he was stuck behind the 'DRS train' formed by Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris.
Reflecting on his difficult race at Baku, Leclerc said: "Today, what mattered was being on the right strategy, in the sense that some cars started on Hards and others on Mediums, and the most important thing was to find yourself in the faster group of cars who were on the same tyres as you, in order to be able to fight your way forward.
"I was stuck behind Liam (Lawson) for most of the second stint. He was on a different strategy with the Mediums and I was on Hards at that point, so I couldn't overtake him. I also had a small issue on my PU, which affected my pace for a few laps.
"At the end of the day, what had the biggest impact on our race was our qualifying result. I made a mistake in Q3 and ended up starting from P10. Going for a P8 or P9 in a race is not my target, and these are not positions I am interested in fighting for. We have to reset and come back stronger in the upcoming races."
Temperatures were much lower in qualifying and in the race than on the opening day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. On top of that, there were some occasional drizzle and gusts of wind in qualifying which further slowed performance. Although there was no rainfall in the race, the clouds meant that track temperatures were much lower than in previous seasons.
Interestingly, both McLaren and Ferrari struggled for pace in the race where tyre wear was close to zero despite the fact that Pirelli had brought its three softest tyres to Baku. It was unexpected to see Ferrari suffer from a lack of pace as the SF25 displayed encouraging performance both in low- and high-fuel configuration across the practice sessions on Friday when temperatures were significantly higher.
"The temperatures were colder than ever before in Baku this time around, which has impacted our performance in the way we were able to work our tyres. Things should look better in warmer temperatures, so I’m looking forward to Singapore and hope we will be in better shape there.
"It's always easy to blame the car and I think overall the car this weekend hasn't been the strongest and it's been a difficult weekend. We have some explanations, first is probably the approach that I've had on the set-up, which hasn't been the right one. Second, I think our car is struggling whenever it's cool and it's been quite cold since yesterday and that made us struggle.
"But I think the main reason, and I am the first one responsible of that, is the mistake in Qualifying. When you start P10, it's very difficult to change the situation," concluded Leclerc.
