Charles Leclerc is not worried about F1 Mexico GP showing as he puts the issues down to feeling, as Frederic Vasseur was annoyed by blue flag that hampered his run.
Ferrari’s Leclerc had to miss FP1 of F1 Mexico GP to give chance to Oliver Bearman. His FP2 start was then delayed as the team was repairing the car after the Brit’s incident with Alexander Albon and to add further, the session was red-flagged due to Mercedes’ George Russell’s crash.
Once he got going, Leclerc didn’t feel 100% in-sync with the car, even though he felt the race pace was there. In qualifying too, he missed out on a Top 3 finish, whereas teammate Carlos Sainz took pole. The grand prix saw him jump to second due to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ extreme tussle.
He held onto second for most part until Norris started flying. Eventually Leclerc made a mistake in the final corner albeit by saving the car from hitting the barrier, which allowed the Brit to snatch the place. Post-race, the Monegasque conceded that it would have been difficult to hold onto second anyhow.
He knew Norris came alive and would have passed him at ease. The only solace was the gap to fourth which meant, he could pit and take an extra point for the fastest lap. While he wasn’t 100% all-through the weekend, team boss Vasseur was convinced that the blue flag situation in the grand prix cost a chance to finish second.
On the sidelines, Leclerc was pulled by the FIA official after the uttered ‘f**k’ in the press conference. Although he acknowledged and readily apologised, it is still to be seen if the governing body will take action over it or not, as they are in discussion process internally.
Podium, backfoot all-weekend –
Leclerc: “Yeah, I mean, all in all, it’s been a really positive weekend for Ferrari, a little bit less for me personally. I haven’t been on my top game this weekend, but having said that, I think Carlos has been doing just the perfect weekend from the first lap in FP1 to the last one of the race. On my side, I was a little bit on the back foot, missing FP1, and I never really recovered. During the race, I felt like I was relatively quick on the first stint. Unfortunately, I had to do… I was requested to do quite a lot of management for temperatures, but yeah, at the end it was the way it is. I think I’m very happy for the team, very happy for Carlos.
“He deserves it more than anybody this weekend because he’s been driving better than anyone. And yeah, a good result for the team. Sometimes you get into the car and the feeling is perfect and sometimes you just have to work a lot harder for it and that’s what happened this weekend. And obviously they was quite a limited amount of running for me because the whole FP2 was on prototypes and Pirelli testing and then FP3 was all about trying to get back into the rhythm but I never really managed to do so. So yeah, I was just not fast enough.”
Was win possible, and or P2 –
Leclerc: “Of course, I could see Carlos was right in front, so there you start to think about the win straight away. I was feeling really good at that moment of the race, so you do, but then quickly I understood that it would be a lot trickier than that with all the management I had to do, but again, I don’t think anyway I had the pace to beat Carlos today. By Lap 63, then I had no chance to stay in front of Lando. Lando was flying, and I think as a team, we’ve been pretty lucky that whatever happened with Max and Lando at the beginning of the race, that slowed him down massively, and his second stint was very, very impressive.
“So that was a good thing for us, and that probably helped us. On my side, there was no way that I could stay in front. I knew that it would be very difficult. I knew that I had to have an incredible exit out of the last corner, so I tried to put everything… to have a really good exit, went over the limit, lost the car and lost the position, but I felt it was a question of laps or corners before I lost that position.”
Big save needed –
Leclerc: “I don’t know which face I did, but it had to be a pretty stressful one because when I lost it… I knew that I had to do everything perfect. I mean, Lando was so quick at that time. So again, I felt like it was a matter of laps, but I was still trying to do everything possible for him to overheat behind me and keep him as long as possible behind me. So, I tried to have the best exit possible. I could see that he was very close out of that corner. I lost the rear and then you forget about Lando and you just hope that you are going to take it back. I had one oversteer and then when I recovered from that oversteer, I had an oversteer from the other side and then I was like, ‘f**k’. Oh, sorry! Oh, no, oh no! I don’t want to join Max! Then I was just hoping to bring the car to the finish line and get that third place.”
Title chance –
Leclerc: “Again, I welcome Max being as aggressive to Lando as possible because it helps me, at least it gives me chances to be closer to Lando in the Drivers’ Championship because it’s still a fight. If anything, it’s more a fight, Lando and myself, than with Max that has quite a lot of advantages in points. On my side, I don’t think about the Drivers’ Championship, realistically. As I was saying earlier, I think first the approach is not to start thinking about the Drivers’ Championship. That doesn’t help me achieve anything more. It’s by focusing race by race.
“And more than that, I just feel like it’s not in my control whether I win the drivers’ championship or… Let me explain better. Of course, there’s part of it that is in my control. And if I win all races, that puts most of the chances on my side. But even if I do that, I’ve got to have Max that has very poor weekends and I don’t rely on that, so I’ll just try and do the best possible end of the season, and then we’ll do the math at the end of the season.”
Blue flag scene, managing drive –
Vasseur: “Charles was in a good place but he lost three seconds with the guys with blue flag. And we lost also with the tyres at this stage. He also made a mistake. You are racing in Mexico, I don’t want to give technical details, it is a lot about management, cooling and everything. It is not an easy exercise, and sometimes for details, you are on the right side or not, but Carlos did a very good job since the beginning, he was also in clean air all the race, and it easier to manage in this situation. Charles was not happy in qualifying with P3, but honestly he did a good race. I am a bit upset with the blue flag, it cost us P2 but at the end of the day, it is like it is and you have to be focused now on the next one, forget this one. When you do five corners and the guy hasn’t slowed, it is not unfortunate, it is a mistake.”
Here’s Charles Leclerc with the big save: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-mexico-city-grand-prix-norris-grabs-p2-after-leclerc-runs-very-wide-on-the-final-corner.1814104958281010807
Here’s Carlos Sainz on clever re-pass on Max Verstappen
Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out
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