This single goal has been hovering before Charles Leclerc’s eyes for many races. I even tried to do more than was possible at the end of the season, but Ferrari could not get second place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Charles Leclerc ended his difficult 2023 with a podium and second place, but he wasn’t happy about it. Reason: Despite his good result and performance, George Russell finished third behind him, and since Lewis Hamilton was sent off in ninth, they generally failed to eliminate the 4-point gap to Mercedes, and had to settle for third place in the standings. championship.
This was not Leclerc’s fault, he had a perfect race. He was almost in front at the start and on the first lap, but even in the heat of the battles with Max Verstappen, the team’s championship was floating before his eyes.
“It was great, but I was thinking about the Constructors’ Championship and I couldn’t risk too much. I saw an opportunity, I saw Max looking in the rearview mirror and I pretended to go right, but then I went left.”
“Then I also tried in Turn 9, but I knew it was important to take care of the tires, and here, even on the first lap, it is so delicate that if you push too much, it will have serious consequences throughout the race. .. That’s why I decided to put it in “Second place. Even if we win first place, we won’t be able to keep it later anyway.” Leclerc justified his controlled aggression.
This example shows how important it is to help his team win silver in the tournament. At the beginning of the race, this was also clearly evident in the form of actions. Leclerc first asked his engineer if he could slow down to help Sergio Perez, who was approaching Russell, pass the Mercedes, then when it emerged the Red Bull driver had also received a 5-second penalty, so that was not the case. Enough to get past him, instead of Perez, he started thinking about how he could make such a difference.
Leclerc voluntarily gave up his second position so Perez could get a clear path and use DRS, but even that wasn’t enough. He was 1.1 seconds away from pushing Russell off the podium and taking the win over Mercedes.
Leclerc was asked when he came up with his plan.
“A few laps ahead of us. Basically the moment I found out about the five-second penalty. I kept asking how big the gap was between Jorge and Chico. Then it was announced that Chico had passed Jorge. I knew he was behind me and his best chance was to use DRS and try to get away from “George as much as he could. I knew that, and we talked to my engineer a lot and I told him that was my plan. But it didn’t go in.”
After that, Leclerc wasn’t really happy with his race and second place finish, despite a strong end to the season. “In the last two weekends, I think we left nothing in it, and for me that’s the main thing. On the other hand, I’m very frustrated, because I wanted to get second place for constructors, and I didn’t get it. It’s a little… well, that’s why “I don’t smile as much as I should after the race. We gave everything, but it wasn’t enough.”
Charles Leclerc (Image: XPB)Regarding the competition, he said: “We were a little more competitive than we expected. We thought we would be a little behind Mercedes and McLaren. But in any case, everything went as we expected: Max was faster, as we expected. But we managed the tires well. We thought we would have a problem.” With the high tire temperature, which is usually our weak point, but today we did a very good job in that area.
Leclerc has proven what a team player he is with his racing. According to him, he was competing with his teammates.
“Yes, I definitely wanted to. Especially for the team. For me, it hasn’t changed much, but the team has worked hard all year.”
“It wasn’t a good season. We started with a very complex car, and it had a balance problem, which didn’t really suit me and I had difficulty handling. They worked hard to get those improvements done as quickly as possible, and obviously I was better off with the car.” “We went in the right direction. So we really wanted to get second place to reward them for their hard work. It didn’t work out in the end.”
Charles Leclerc (Image: XPB)They asked if it was possible to say that Ferrari was the third fastest car this year. “It depends on the place. There were many races where our car was second fastest, while in other races we were fourth or fifth fastest. It was really undulating. However, since Japan, I feel we have turned in the right direction with our developments.” “I always liked to be strong in the beginning, and since then I have become much better, more balanced.”
“It’s good, but at the same time I’m very disappointed that we finished third in the Constructors’ Championship, because that was my only goal for two or three races. I tried until the last lap and I gave Chico the DRS to try to get five seconds from George, but it’s Did not succeed”.
In 2024, Ferrari will fight for an even greater goal. Leclerc looks forward to the new season with confidence but caution. “On the one hand, it’s good to end the year this way, and it makes me confident about next year, and that we will know better how to prepare the car, and what the development should be. On the other hand, we are far from reaching Red Bull’s pace, especially the race pace. Everyone is in “The team realizes that, we still have a lot of work to do.” – Monaco summed up.
