Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is not calling his unfortunate F1 Bahrain GP loss as the worst race weekend of his career so far.
Leclerc looked strong all-weekend long at Bahrain International Circuit in only his second race for Ferrari, where he even had the edge over Sebastian Vettel. The Monegasque scored his first F1 pole on Saturday and looked good for his maiden victory.
He did lose out to Vettel at the start and also Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas but came back well to take second and also the lead which he held on to until the last 15 laps. Leclerc was cursing towards a historic moment but it wasn’t to be.
An engine issue – which was later on revealed to be an issue related to internal combustion engine where there was a miscombustion on one cylinder – hampered his progress as he dropped down to third behind Lewis Hamilton and Bottas.
He was in close range to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen but a safety car period allowed him to held on to third, which ended up being a bittersweet moment where he scored his first F1 podium result but missed out on a deserving maiden victory.
The Monegasque though didn’t term it as his ‘worst race’ as he wanted to savour the podium. He reckoned his worst was probably the 2017 Monaco F2 weekend, where he retired from both the feature and the sprint race with unfortunate luck.
“I will not go to that extreme to describe the Bahrain GP as cruelest because I think F2 in Monaco was probably the worst I’ve ever had,” he said. “And because it’s still a podium and it’s my first podium in F1, so in a way I feel I should enjoy it.
“The way I felt like, there was a lot more to take this weekend but, overall, of course, it’s not the ideal race we wanted but we shall be happy about our third place despite problems. To be honest, I really thought everything would blow up a few laps later.
“Happily it has not been the case and just a loss of power but completely very sudden. It got a tiny bit better after but the problem stayed there [until the end]. And there were no signs before it to feel that anything was going wrong.”
Leclerc found support from a majority of the viewers, whether his rivals or past F1 racers. Hamilton was very vocal and even gave him a pep talk in the cool down room, while Vettel had a chat right after the race, with many others posting on social media.
On the whole, the Monegasque threw his name in the hat of drivers who could be in the shot for the F1 title. Of course, it remains to be seen how he goes as the season progresses but the signs are very promising.
Reflecting on the whole weekend after the Australia debacle, he added: “I think from the whole weekend there are a lot of positives to take. After Australia we were quite a lot far off. I think we found some answers – not all of them – but we found some.
“We came here, front row lock-out, which was very positive for the team, and we showed that they have done an amazing job. That doesn’t mean we’ll stay there for the rest of the season but that just shows off how good of a job they’ve done between the two races.
“And then I think we’ve shown also that we had very strong pace during the race. Probably we were the strongest in Bahrain. Unfortunately the issues stopped us winning – but, on the other hand, issues always happen in a season.
“If any time I have an issue, I finish third, then I think we could be quite happy. It was not our day. It’s sad, because obviously I was so close of realising a dream that you have since childhood, which is your first win in F1.
“But hopefully this day will come one day in the future. I’ll work for that, and I’m pretty sure the team will work for this but they should be proud about what they’ve done this weekend, and we’ll come back stronger.”
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