Charles Leclerc has lamented his and Ferrari’s underwhelming performance at the F1 Bahrain GP.
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari bucked the trend of the top six ny opting to start on medium tyres. After a long first stint, Leclerc pitted for mediums, bringing back into play. Fitting hard tyre after the late Safety car, his defense of the final podium fizzled out in the final laps. The Monegasque finished a disappointed 4th.
Speaking to the media after the race, Leclerc could not hide his disappointment at a lost podium in the closing stages.
“I’m a bit disappointed I mean at the end of the day we did everything we had to. The start was very tricky with a medium. We lost a bit of places, but then we played we had to be patient.
“We went a bit longer then it started to pay off. And then there was a safety car which kind of rezeroed everything and then on the hard we were struggling so it’s a shame.
Leclerc then delivered an blunt assessment of his and Ferrari’s evening in Bahrain.
“We lose out on the podium, but I felt that this was the best we could do today and It’s disappointing because when you have some so much fight Towards the end and you’re fighting for the first podium of the season. The pace is just not here not good enough to achieve that.”
“So I really hope that soon. We’ll have the car in order to to get back on it.
Could a different strategy have worked for Charles Leclerc at F1 Bahrain GP?
Leclerc admitted that on reflection, his push for a change to a one-stop strategy would not have worked.
He underlined the substantial effort needed by the Scuderia to challenge McLaren and Mercedes.
“There was I mean there was different strategies that we’re speaking of one of those was the was the one stop but it was it was definitely brave and I’m happy we didn’t do that at the end because That would have been a very difficult with safety car later on.
“So it still feels like a baby step forward day this weekend a baby step but we need many baby steps before Getting to where we want and but as I said at the beginning of the weekend, we just need to be cautious I think we brought that upgrade here.
“I think there’s this is not the best track to extract the maximum out of this upgrade and I’m sure that Next week, we shall be extracting a little bit more of performance from these upgrades and hopefully be fighting for further [podiums].“
