F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Leclerc reassured Ferrari that 'it's under control'

Charles Leclerc may be one of the youngest drivers on the Formula 1 grid this season, but when it came to qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix it was the 21-year-old who oozed cool, calm confidence.

"He's massively motived," Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto told Sky Sports F1. "I knew before the qualie that he should be careful, no mistakes - I just told him, don't overdrive.

"He said, 'No, Mattia, stay calm, it's under control!' And he's showing that he's under control and very fast."

With everyone trying to exploit the slipstream advantage for their flying laps down Spa's famous superlong high-speed straights, it was Leclerc who made the decision to simply ditch the strategy and go it alone.

"At first I really targeted the perfect slipstream,' he said later when reviewing the events of the final top ten shoot-out round on Saturday afternoon.

"But after that I felt the tyres were not ready for Turn 1 and I actually lost quite a bit of time.

"So for the second run in Q3 I asked to be sent whenever the car was ready, to be alone and try to do the job alone without slipstreams.

"In my opinion, on my car, it felt better to have tyres in the right window than having the slipstream so we went as soon as possible.

"It felt good. Obviously the first sector was not exactly what I wanted, especially in the first corner.

"We had to go very slow to prepare the lap because there was a lot of traffic," he explained. "I struggled quite a bit but after that from the second corner onwards we were strong and it felt amazing.

"That's what I asked in the garage, actually - not to not really care about the slipstream. It was too much of a mess to prepare the tyres and the lap overall, so I wanted to be alone and it worked out so I’m very happy.

"The start of the lap was always very, very messy, because there was quite a lot of traffic with all the cars around.

"But at the end I managed to do the full lap correctly, and I'm very happy. I definitely did not expect to be that much ahead but very happy with my lap anyway."

However Leclerc is aware that Ferrari is unlikely to enjoy the same sort of advantage over Mercedes and Red Bull in tomorrow's race.

Straight line speed is less of a factor when it comes to race conditions, and Ferrari's long distance runs on Friday during practice also confirmed that things will most likely be a lot closer in the Grand Prix.

"We were struggling a little bit more for the race pace yesterday so we need to work on that," he acknowledged.

"But yeah, looking at the pace today, I’m pretty sure we’ll be strong."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Sad Colapinto laments two crashes in one day in Sao Paulo

Williams suffered a bruising time on Sunday in Sao Paulo, with Alex Albon unable to…

1 hour ago

McLaren: No regrets over timing of Norris pit stop in Sao Paulo GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about their…

3 hours ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

4 hours ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

5 hours ago

Sainz left puzzled by double crash drama in rainy São Paulo

Carlos Sainz was left scratching his head after a disastrous Sunday at the Sao Paulo…

6 hours ago

Alonso pushed through agonizing pain to complete Sao Paulo GP

Fernando Alonso braved both physical agony and mechanical challenges in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,…

7 hours ago