Charles Leclerc, Sauber, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Canada will be “one of the best races” for Sauber – Leclerc

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: The Canadian Grand Prix will be one of Sauber’s strongest races of the season, says Charles Leclerc.

What they say

Leclerc believes the two toughest races for Sauber are now behind them.

I think we got the expectations wrong in Barcelona. I think we didn’t [in Monaco], we struggled. It doesn’t look like it on the paper but we struggled and the car was very difficult to drive in qualifying but I think we extracted the maximum potential.

I’m very happy about my lap in Q1 and Q2. I think we made the best out of the car we have at the moment. Traffic management was great and everything that we did had a great result here but we struggled as expected. The race was a surprise because we were better than expected on the race pace. In quali, pace [was] as expected I would say.

But I think we have done the two worst races for us. Paul Ricard is a little bit of a question mark, but apart from that I would say these were the worst races for us.

So I hope now our expectations are the right ones and that it’s looking positive for the next few races. But I expect Montreal to be one of the best races from the year.

Quotes: Gabriele Koslowski

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

Should electric karting become a Young Olympic event?

I’m a motorsports fan. I love the sport, am an OK (very) amateur racer too. I appreciate the strength, reaction time, endurance and concentration needed to be a great driver… But I’m not sure I’m totally OK with karting becoming an Olympic sport.

And honestly I can’t pinpoint why, except “do we really need karting as an olympic sport”? Does the FIA and driving need it? Do the Olympics need it?

On the plus side, it would definitively mark the “Citius” part of “Citius Altius Fortuis”, and with one make e-karting it would be a level playing field. I believe the hope would be that it would showcase the sport to many people.

But does being an Olympic discipline help already expensive sports like Bobsleigh to expand? Worse, it could make our sport more difficult to reach. In sailing, all the Olympic class boats are notably more expensive than close non Olympic classes. I’d also add that karting, like gymnastics, will have to include minimum weight and age to the drivers to avoid 12-year-old winning everything (never a good thing).

As a last thought, I believe the one really positive aspect I see is that chances of early Olympic gold for young female drivers might put the onus on the best to push ahead with their motoring career rather than stop (which is what happens in the late teens of most great female drivers).
@Tango

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Ratboy and Davef1!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

  • 35 years ago today Michele Alboreto gave Tyrrell its final victory in F1’s last race at Long Beach

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

21 comments on “Canada will be “one of the best races” for Sauber – Leclerc”

  1. Newey says, “caught fire and was a burnt out wreck” presumably he’s only talking about the MGU-K, but even so, one would think that would be sufficiently dramatic to have warranted some pictures or at least comments on the day itself, is there another motive for this announcement, a red herring perhaps, or what ? Thanks again @keithcollantine for a timely post, I can now get on with the rest of my day.

    1. hopefully the battery is ok

  2. Wouldn’t it be worth for Ricciardo to just change the whole engine again and take maximum penalties – and do that whenever he has to and kill those specific races.

    Surely coming from dead last over one race, then starting where he qualifies in the next is better than getting a 10 place drop, then a 5 place, then another 5 place for example split over multiple races.

    It’s a lot easier to overtake from 20th to 10th than it is from 5th to first twice.

    A problem with these current regulations. It becomes grid place drop management rather than racing, for those suffering from unreliability.

    1. I don’t believe that dan has used all 3 of his engines yet. So changing an engine won’t give him a penelty and stock piling engines was banned after merc did it a couple of years ago

      I am not sure exactly where he stands on mguk or other complainants though

    2. No unfortunately. He isn’t at max usage on all his other components. He can take the pain for the MGU-K and his energy store but that is it.
      If he takes another ICE and TC, it will come out of his allotment with no penalty needed. BUt that means he will be on Max usage for them as well, so the next time anything fails, he gets a penalty.
      That also rules him out for the new engine spec that Renault are bringing. He can’t afford to take it.

    3. I kind of agree with you. Looking at the performance gap between the top 3 teams and the rest of the field, even if Ricciardo starts dead last, he can make it to P6 by the end of the race. Canada shouldn’t be a circuit where Red Bull will be particularly strong either, so I thought it would make sense for him to take the maximum penalty there. At least Red Bull can maximise their opportunities when they are fighting for wins by not taking any penalties in those race weekends.

      I was very critical of the 3 engine rule before the season started, because I knew that it would be a spoiler for an interesting championship battle. 7 Races in, and we already have one championship contender dealing with grid drops and penalties. This rule was an absolute joke, and unfortunately, will be the thing that decides the championship battle. Such a shame.

    4. ColdFly (@)
      5th June 2018, 7:23

      It’s a lot easier to overtake from 20th to 10th than it is from 5th to first twice.

      So true.
      But the first feat gains you one point, whereas the second gains you 60!

    5. How do the components work?

      I know you get say the ICE for the year. Do you have to use one, then the second, then the third or can you switch between the three? (I am pretty sure I have heard the commentators say (towards the end of the season) he is using an old engine from earlier in the year.)

      If you can switch between the three then does how does it work when you take a forth? Does one (nominated engine) fall away when you take a forth? But you can still switch back to one of the other previous used (2) engines? Or do you then have to use the forth till the end of the year or you take a fifth?

      I know you not allowed to stockpile over a weekend, so if you are allowed to skip between engines how do they prevent this?

      For certain teams (thinking midfield) would it not make sense to run a engine a max for a weekend/race to optimize that race (Knowing others are trying to eek out 7 odd race weekends from there engine) and then accept a penalty in the next? (i.e one 6th place is better than three tenth places)

  3. Re: Robert Kubica 2008 Canadian GP…. I’ve long had a feeling of resentment towards teams who ‘steal’ driver’s winning trophies off them. Is the constructors trophy they get for winning the race not enough?

    Yes it’s been put in the contract, but what gives them the right to put that clause and to think it’s acceptable to do so? We all know up and coming drivers would give anything to get into the best seat they can at the time, and don’t hold the negotiating balance of power in their favour at the time they sign up.

    The fia should ban the teams from putting in such clauses, wishful thinking i know, but the drivers have always been the intended recipient of the trophy. And then in Kubica’s instance not even some kind of replica for the driver, poor show from BMW sauber.

    1. absolutely agree.

      1. @HoHum
        From memory, it was another reason Lewis left McLaren. They would not allow him to keep any of the trophy’s from his wins for the team.

    2. Ryan, well, McLaren have traditionally kept the original trophies for drivers and given replicas to their drivers. It did prove to have benefits for Hakkinen though – it prevented his trophies from being destroyed when a fire broke out in his house and burned it to the ground.

    3. ColdFly (@)
      5th June 2018, 7:28

      I think you underestimate the impact of the other 499 team members in achieving a win.
      I would agree with you if the team were on the highest step and get the big trophy. Then the driver should be allowed to keep the smaller trophy.

      PS the driver typically gets a replica anyway; none of the other team members can put one on their mantelpiece.

      1. Agree with you @coldfly for 2nd and 3rd place: original to the team, replica to the driver. But 1st? Original should go to the driver, since constructor receives his own.

  4. I agree with the COTD.
    – I didn’t expect that Ricciardo would be getting a grid penalty for exceeding PU element allocation at this point of the season already.

    1. @cotd there is also a risk to create a bottleneck of people staying in Karting longer than they should plus the fact that you will basically have a medal chance based on your age (except if they add weight to the lighter drivers).

      Motorsport at the Olympic is kinda like shooting, it feels odd.

      1. Thanks for COTD @keithcollantine, those were assorted musings in the hope of launching a conversation.

        Yes, creating karting specialists @jeanrien in the same way that in an america’s cup race boat you’ll probably find 8 sailing gold medallists who have been olympians until their late 20’s and then jumped to the big boys’ boats quite late.

        I wonder how many categories and medals could be doled out. Could we have weight categories, just like in boxing? Various power outputs? Lengths (plus a team relay)? .. I must admit I’d be interested to know where it would lead.

        1. @tango Sailing is a good analogy and I often use the parallel between F1 and the America cup. To be honest, from an engineer perspective, I think that the America cup has the upper hand right now in the creativity and development of new systems.

          To come back to the Olympics, you could have, like in sailing, classes that are not popular except the year before the Olympics which question their relevance… Every 4 years it’s Karting year!

  5. Race 7 and we’re talking about grid penalties

    1. SparkyAMG (@)
      5th June 2018, 10:44

      @anunaki I’m suprised we made it to Race 7!

  6. Hold your ego young man.

Comments are closed.