Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2024

Ferrari were “so slow in the dry” admits shocked Leclerc as drivers miss Q3

Formula 1

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Charles Leclerc said a sheer lack of pace was the biggest of Ferrari’s problems after both drivers failed to reach Q3 in Canada.

He and team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr both missed the cut for the top 10 by less than a tenth of a second.

The winner of the last race in Monaco was surprised by the team’s slump in form at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. “We were just slow,” he admitted. “Slow all day.”

Leclerc had been running on used soft tyres at the end of Q2. He revealed he also had a recurring problem with a faulty brake sensor after final practice earlier today and said the team did not manage the timing of its runs well in today’s qualifying session.

“There was similar issues also to this morning,” he told the official F1 channel. “I had a sensor issue which was very annoying, then the management of the cars, the management of the session as well wasn’t the best, I think. So all in all, it’s been a tough session.

“I would say that the biggest problem is the pace. We are so slow in the dry at the moment, we don’t understand.

“So it’s a bit strange to go from a really, really good weekend in Monaco in terms of pace and get here and and be on the back foot. So, we’ll look into it.”

Leclerc will line up 11th on the grid alongside his team mate. He is hopeful they will be able to gain ground and score some points.

“I still feel confident that tomorrow coming the race, we can put everything together and have a better result. However, until now we haven’t proved it on the dry.

“So let’s see what are the conditions and we’ll try to maximise the results. I think that’s the main thing in those races like that. We just need to make sure that we take the maximum points available.

“This weekend we haven’t been great. We’ll focus on that after the weekend to understand where we lacked and for now the best thing we can do is focus on tomorrow.”

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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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3 comments on “Ferrari were “so slow in the dry” admits shocked Leclerc as drivers miss Q3”

  1. Very strange for Ferrari. The only (hope) reason that i can imagine is that the Ferrari’s set-up is for rain and the others for dry or something in between.

    But that would be very far fetched so i think they just messed up. Will see it as the race evolves.

    Just wondering if Sainz did not make the mistake at the last corner during Q2 how close he could get to the front runners in Q3.

  2. I saw Fred mentioned they didn’t have any new softs left at the end of Q2 so maybe they lucked out. They could’ve at least beat Ricciardo had they got through.

  3. It felt like peak 1993 Ferrari today!

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