Charles Leclerc says he will sit down with Ferrari to get a “full view” of the team’s calls on strategy during Formula 1’s British Grand Prix.
Leclerc was leading team-mate Carlos Sainz when the safety car was deployed on Lap 39, but Ferrari opted to keep Leclerc out on hard tyres and pit Sainz for softs – a decision most of the field also took.
Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto explained after the race that it didn’t want to double stack its cars, instead choosing to leave Leclerc out with track position.
This ultimately left Leclerc exposed to the soft runners at the restart and, despite his best efforts to not lose places, he was passed by Sainz, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton, finishing in fourth place.
“I don’t want to comment now, I want to discuss it and have the full view with the team what the reason was,” Leclerc said of Ferrari’s decision to not to pit him, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“Obviously I felt personally I was very strong in the first part of the race and that I lost a little bit of time – whether this would have changed the end result, I don’t think it would have, but just for the future we need to check everything.”
Asked if he tried to overrule the team’s strategy, he replied: “No, because it was obviously very late, and then the team said stay out. So I cannot come in obviously if we not aligned on that, and that was it.”
After Leclerc climbed out of his car in parc ferme, he was seen chatting to Binotto before speaking to the media, which the Monegasque driver claimed was Binotto’s attempt to “cheer me up”.
“He tried, but then of course the disappointment is big for me.” Leclerc added. “It’s been a rollercoaster of a race. The first lap I broke the front wing, and then I thought that was over, there was quite a lot of understeer.
“Then I managed to play around with my toggles and managed to have a bit more a strong front, and then the pace came back and we were very strong.
“And then the win was feeling more and more possible, and then obviously the safety car and that was it. It’s frustrating.”
While Leclerc was left vulnerable to cars on much faster tyres at the restart, he was clear he “gave everything” to stay in front and enjoyed his on-track battles in the last laps.
“I don’t know how much you’ve seen of it but it was quite on the limit,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com how hard it was to defend on the hards.
“And I had to be on the limit to try and keep my position, which I did. I don’t think I could have done much better than that. It was fun, on the other hand I was very frustrated.
“I was on the limit, but again I had to. In my position I was on used tyres, and all of this was very tricky, so I just had to use everything that was possible. I was always checking that Lewis was a bit behind at the apex to try and remember the rule, and to play with the rules. I tried to do my best.
“I still thought that everything was possible, and I gave everything until the end. It wasn’t enough, but even though I knew it would have been very, very difficult, I believed in it until the last lap.”
Despite the disappointment of seeing a potential win slip away, Leclerc was pleased to see team-mate Sainz claim his first F1 victory.
“Of course, and I think this is an important point.” Leclerc said. “As much as I am disappointed on my side I don’t think this should be a headline on what is an amazing first victory for Carlos.
“It’s a dream come true I think. Whenever you are a child, you dream of this moment, and especially with Ferrari, so he needs to enjoy. It’s his day. and hopefully next time it will be my day.”
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