Team Talk - Sunday in Shanghai

Scuderia Ferrari 

Charles Leclerc 

"We had a really good race car today and the pace to fight with the guys in the front. Unfortunately, my front wing was damaged at the start. I took the inside line at turn 1, while Lewis was more to the outside and didn’t know I was there and I didn’t expect him to come back to the inside, so it was just an unfortunate incident.

"I lost quite a lot of downforce from the damage and we did a good job to make it to the end in that shape. We decided not to change the front wing during the pitstop, since that would mean losing 8 seconds and having to overtake a few cars to recover positions. I gave it my all to overtake George (Russell), but we struggled quite a bit in Turn 12 compared to him, which made it impossible to pass him.

"It could have been a better day for our team, but it’s positive to see that our race pace is there. The huge amount of support from the grandstands this weekend was great to see and put a smile on my face."

Lewis Hamilton

"Tough day but a positive weekend overall and we’ve made some good progress since Melbourne. We tried some new set up changes for qualifying and the race that didn’t work out, but that’s a learning we can take with us moving forward.

"I got a good start off the line but started to struggle with pace as the race continued, so suggested swapping with Charles to try and maximise our opportunities as a team. The two-stop strategy helped find some good pace towards the final few laps but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to gain places.

"We’ll go through everything, take the learnings, and come back stronger. It’s a long road to the championship, and we’ll keep pushing."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"It was tough today with strange situations. On one side of the garage there was the damage to the front wing for Charles and on the other side it was actually more difficult for Lewis, after yesterday when his tyre management was excellent, while today he struggled more. For him, the two-stop was definitely the right choice as tyre degradation was quite significant and if the others had to pit it would have made sense. Now we will have to look into it, to understand why we struggled more than expected. Tyre management was difficult for everyone with tyres struggling and then coming back. It’s hard to read but we can take some positives, such as Charles’ very good pace despite the damage to his front wing. In these conditions we finished 20 seconds behind McLaren and ten behind Mercedes. We just need to do a better job to make sure we always exploit the car’s potential and we will focus on this immediately."