Charles Leclerc acknowledged that Ferrari was unable to extract the full potential of the car in the qualifying session for the Formula 1 Italian GP. Despite this, the Monegasque expects a stronger team in the race and sees the energy usage strategy as one of the decisive factors.
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According to Leclerc, the characteristics of the circuit make it especially difficult to find the ideal balance between the power unit and driving style. The driver also highlighted the need to take advantage of Ferrari’s performance in the corners, given the competitors’ advantage on the straights.
“This is a very demanding track to optimize the power unit and driving style with this year’s car, and we couldn’t fully optimize it,” Leclerc said. He also said he expects better performance in the race and warned of the possibility of a battle marked by the so-called ‘yo-yo race’, if teams adopt different power unit usage strategies.
Lewis Hamilton also admitted that Ferrari was unable to maximize Q3, although he considered the pace shown earlier positive: “The car seemed strong in TL3 and we showed consistent pace at the start of the qualifying session. In the end, we couldn’t maximize Q3, and that cost us,” concluded the Briton.
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Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur assessed that the result was close to expected for a track that should be unfavorable to the team. He also revealed that a battery problem during the out lap in Q2 almost made the situation even more complicated: “From the team’s point of view, we expected to struggle a bit here because of the layout, so being just a tenth off Russell’s time is a good result,” he added.
For the race, Vasseur highlighted the pace shown by Ferrari the previous day and pointed to strategy as a central element: “Everything is still possible tomorrow, but we will have to do everything perfectly if we want to give our home fans something to celebrate,” concluded the Frenchman.
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