Charles Leclerc arrives at the Monaco GP trying to leave behind an extremely complicated weekend in Canada. The Ferrari driver described the Montreal stage as ‘a nightmare’ and said he experienced the most difficult moment of his entire Formula 1 career.
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Even crossing the finish line in fourth place after starting only from eighth position, the Monegasque left frustrated with the behavior of the SF-26 throughout the schedule at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. While Leclerc struggled to find rhythm and confidence, Lewis Hamilton finished in second place and secured Ferrari’s best result of the season so far.
The problems started right in the only free practice session of the weekend. Unable to extract performance from the tires, Leclerc was already showing concern during the qualifying session. Upon hearing over the radio that he was only in eighth place in Q2, the Monegasque responded: “I’m completely off pace, completely out of it. Q3 is either into the wall or P8.”
After the race, the driver vented again about the difficulties faced in Montreal: “It was a nightmare of a weekend. Probably the toughest weekend of my entire Formula 1 career. I didn’t have any good feeling with the tires from the first lap of FP1 to the last lap of the race,” said the Ferrari driver.
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Leclerc also said he had to slow down a lot in the final laps, just to avoid bigger risks: “In the last fifteen laps, I was driving one second or one and a half seconds slower just to not take risks. And even then I still had moments when I thought: ‘That was too close’,” he added.
Despite the difficulties, the Monegasque highlighted Hamilton’s performance as a positive point for analysis within the Italian team. According to him, the seven-time world champion had an ‘incredible’ performance in Montreal and will serve as a reference to understand the performance difference between the two sides of the Ferrari garage.
With that, attention now turns to the Monaco GP, the track where Leclerc won his first home victory in 2024. Although he avoided creating high expectations, the driver believes that the low-speed layout could represent an important opportunity for Ferrari to fight for pole position: “If there is one race this year where I feel we have more chances to fight for pole, it’s Monaco. I hope that’s the case,” he concluded.
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