(Motorsport-Total.com) – Charles Leclerc is still searching for the reasons behind his disappointing weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix. Compared to teammate Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari driver consistently lacked pace in Montreal. To find answers, Leclerc is now analyzing his teammate’s data. The Monegasque described the race weekend as the “most difficult weekend” of his Formula 1 career so far.
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Despite the problems, Leclerc still finished in fourth place. He benefited, among other things, from George Russell’s retirement as well as a strategy error and also a retirement at McLaren.
Hamilton clearly stronger than Leclerc
Already in the sprint qualifying, Leclerc had to concede defeat to Hamilton within the team. Although he was initially ahead of the Briton in the sprint, he fell back later on. While Leclerc said he struggled with his Ferrari, Hamilton achieved his best result so far since joining the Scuderia in Canada and finished the race more than 30 seconds ahead of his teammate.
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“It was a terrible weekend,” Leclerc explained after the Grand Prix. “I am really disappointed with my performance. It was probably the most difficult race of my entire Formula 1 career. The pace I had throughout the weekend was probably best on Sunday. But I still haven’t understood why I had such big difficulties this weekend.”
Especially in dealing with the tires, Ferrari found no solution on his side. “We could never keep the tires in the right working window. That had nothing to do with the car. Lewis did an incredible job and congratulations to him. On my side, I just had big problems,” said Leclerc.
Leclerc analyzes Hamilton’s working method
Despite the disappointing performance, the Ferrari driver is trying to take insights from the weekend. “The good news is that I have Lewis in the same car and can look at what he did this weekend to find answers as to why I had such difficulties.”
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What was particularly interesting for him was the different preparation for the race weekend. According to Leclerc, Hamilton refrained from using the Ferrari simulator before a Grand Prix for the first time this year. Hamilton himself did not consider this factor and instead referred to the changing conditions in Montreal, which helped him with the adaptation.
Montreal remains a problem track for Leclerc
Leclerc also sees some track characteristics as a cause of his difficulties. “Montreal is not a track where I have ever felt particularly comfortable,” explained the Ferrari driver. His only podium in Canada so far was in 2019. “Similar to Melbourne, there are many corners in Montreal where I have big problems with my driving style. The car just doesn’t feel good to me there.”
Additional technical problems on Friday made it harder to get into the weekend, according to Leclerc. Especially with the brakes and tires, he had big difficulties building a consistent rhythm.
“When you also consider the problems from Friday, I could never really build confidence. On Saturday, it was almost only about managing the tires. On Sunday, it was not quite as extreme, but I still never felt really in rhythm.”
Ferrari still second in the constructors’ championship
In the drivers’ standings, Leclerc remains in third place with 75 points and currently has a three-point lead over Hamilton, who is in fourth. Ferrari is currently second in the constructors’ championship, 72 points behind Mercedes.