Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Imola, 2020

Leclerc “not very satisfied” with his lap after qualifying seventh

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In the round-up: Charles Leclerc says he was disappointed with his qualifying run which left him seventh on the grid for today’s race.

What they say

Leclerc was only a tenth of a second away from beating Pierre Gasly to fourth place:

We probably expected something more but P7 is what we could do today. I mean, everything is very, very close.

Looking at my lap, I’m not very satisfied with my lap and the way I drove in Q3. But it’s life.

Looking at the gaps between me and Pierre it’s a bit disappointing. But he did an amazing job and an amazing lap and I didn’t today. So that’s it and hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a better day.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Roger isn’t convinced two-day race weekends are the way for F1 to go:

If two-day weekends do start to become the norm then it’s just going to give the advantage to those who have the best simulation tools which will be the top teams.

Smaller teams and especially any new teams and new drivers will just end up at a greater disadvantage.

As a fan who actually enjoys attending race weekends them cutting to two days with maybe under four hours of track running immediately makes it significantly less value on top of taking away what is by far the best part of the weekend.

With three hours practice on Fridays you can walk the circuit and get to watch cars from different parts of the track and that experience is for me by far the best part of the weekend. You don’t have time to do that with a single session on Saturday on top of tending to want to get a seat and settling in ready for qualifying where you want to sit and pay attention to times and stuff.
@Roger-ayles

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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...

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12 comments on “Leclerc “not very satisfied” with his lap after qualifying seventh”

  1. @keithcollantine So what is your solution to track limit problem?

    I thought that for the first time in 5 or so years the track limits were spot on and I truly hope this trend will continue.

    1. Surely you use the white line or you don’t. I don’t know why it needs to be any more complicated than that. Failing that, make sure there’s a penalty (gravel or equivalent) that discourages drivers exceeding track limits.

    2. @huhhii @tommy-c
      Use the curbing as the reference wherever possible as has been the standard before, or put a speed bump at the exits of slow(er)-speed corners.

    3. The Skeptic (@)
      1st November 2020, 6:59

      So what is your solution to track limit problem?

      To answer your question to Keith…. (not on his behalf!):

      – Track limits are defined by the white line marking the track boundary. For a lap-time to count, a part of the car must be in contact with the track.

      The way things were done at Imola… sometimes it’s the white line, sometimes its the paint on the kerb…. sometimes its “meh… who cares?”. No wonder Kimi was so angry….

      1. @jerejj White line makes much more sense as a track limit than curb. It’s been like that for years in all of motorsports. Curbs are unique in nearly every track whereas white line is same in every circuit.

        @theskeptic I don’t think there’s need to penalize for going off everywhere. There are places were by going wide driver doesn’t gain but instead loses time. Penalizing from that is kinda meaningless. If you ran wide, lose time yet still take pole position or FLAP or whatever I don’t think driver should lose his time.

        Just make white line as a decisive limit on every track and make it clear for drivers where you can’t go off. That’s how it was done in Imola and I loved it.

  2. Response to COTD: I agree with the viewing part. I pay for General Admission tickets to get videos and pictures of the cars at different parts of the circuit. One practice session is merely enough to get coverage of the entire track. I felt gutted when I went to Suzuka last year, and I only had the chance to capture shots of the first sector, as FP2 was not enough for me to go around the whole track. In qualifying and in the race, free roaming was no longer permitted, unlike on Friday. I must thank the organizers at Suzuka though, for allowing those who purchased tickets, to free roam on Friday.

    What I do wish, is that they have more tyres or a free practice allocation of power units to get the teams to run more in practice. I think Hamilton said that he does not like to do many laps in practice due to conservation of the power unit components.

    1. @krichelle No point in giving more tyre sets because there’s only a risk of more sets ending up unused, so fewer is the way.

    2. @krichelle there is also the disadvantage that giving the teams that equipment only works if they do also have the time to use it. Giving teams extra engines that are meant to be used only in free practice, for example, then means the teams need enough time to replace those engines for qualifying – something which the condensed weekend format might work against, given that the practice and qualifying sessions are so close together.

  3. The link to the Damon Hill article on BT is incorrect @keithcollantine, it is a link to an old forum post.

  4. Agree with COTD, removing the Friday running really devalues the event for attendees (obviously less of an issue this year) but it also diminishes the sport’s reach in terms of media coverage. In the wider sports headlines you generally see a line about who has headed each of the Friday sessions. I reckon that’s invaluable exposure in keeping F1 in the mind’s eye of the non-fanatics.

  5. As much I like it, Leclerc is too humble and polite. For typical F1 fans, that’s just weakness and will respond much better to drivers talking themselves up and even bragging, as they want people to admire and even semi-worship.

    Just look at how Leclerc is not rated compared to some others, even if he’s undoubtedly one of the best talents having done some amazing performances. Here people’s takeaway will just think he messes up qualifying, when in reality he normally nails them, and this was probably just a slight error away from perfection.

  6. 2 day f1 weekend is like having the whole of christmas on a couple days, months of preparations for a couple of meals and for kids to shred their gifts.

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