As soon as the checkered flag that sealed the end of the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix Qualifying had waved, Ferrari’s weekend seemed all in all to have taken a favorable turn thanks to the good third time obtained by Charles Leclerc.
While the Monegasque was in the second sector, just out of Portier and at the entrance to the tunnel, Charles unintentionally hindered Lando Norris, who was the only rider still busy on his last flying lap to try to improve his starting position for Sunday .
Leclerc, who was in contact with his engineer Xavi Marcos at the time, was not warned in time of the McLaren driver’s arrival. A few hours later, the Monegasque received a 3-place penalty to be served on the grid the following day. This (right) decision taken by the race stewards ruined the Ferrari driver’s home race.
You know, you can’t overtake in Monte-Carlo. Result: Charles finished sixth despite the predicted rain arriving midway through the race – but surprisingly intense – making everything more uncertain. At the end of the race in which Ferrari brought home yet another result below expectations, Frédéric Vasseur commented afterwards on the penalty taken by the jewel of Monte-Carlo.
“Yesterday (Saturday) we received the information about the penalty late and that obviously put us in trouble for the race. Of course it’s frustrating. Any weekend like this is frustrating, anywhere, and at his home race (for Leclerc) it is even more so. But on the other hand it is in these cases that we have to keep our heads up”.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Ferrari
“The season is long, it’s not the only race on the calendar, even if it probably counts more than the others. The points are the same, so we have to start again in Barcelona hoping to have a great weekend there.”
Vasseur also stated that Ferrari will try to learn from the communication error made last Saturday in order not to repeat it again in the future.
“For a couple of years, Leclerc has been a bit frustrated with how things are going in Monaco and it was certainly tough on Saturday. It was tough first, losing pole by just over a tenth, losing the front row by two cents and then the communication error”.
“What can I do but apologize to him on behalf of the team and understand how we can do a better job, and improve the communication between the pit wall and Charles under these conditions. But from both sides.”
“I think what happened was also due to the circumstances, the fact that it happened in the tunnel and so on. But that’s okay, we have to avoid making excuses because it’s the worst way to improve, we just have to correct ourselves.”
Vasseur also spoke more in depth about what went wrong right after qualifying on Saturday, with Leclerc unintentionally hindering Lando Norris while the latter was intent on finishing his flying lap.
“Under the tunnel Charles was not able to see in the mirror where Norris was, while if we had told him before entering the tunnel perhaps he could have avoided being in the trajectory. Even the trajectory to maintain under the tunnel is not so clear”.
“But clearly we made a mistake on Saturday that cost us a lot, because I think starting from third position our race could have been a different one. We have to learn from what happened.”
“Honestly, I’m not trying to make excuses or anything like that. We have to completely review the situation. I didn’t want to do it on Saturday night because we then focused on the race. But we will look into the situation in the next few hours,” concluded the Ferrari team principal.
Read also:
