Leclerc blasts Ferrari for 'making life way too difficult'

Charles Leclerc sung a familiar tune after qualifying on Saturday in Montreal, the Monegasque laying the blame for his Q2 exit on another ill-timed call by the Ferrari pitwall.

Leclerc had just headed out on track at the start of Q2, his SF-23 fitted with a set of inters. But gauging the conditions, the Scuderia charger immediately radioed in to suggest a switch to the softs.

But Leclerc was then asked by his team to first put in a flyer on the inters, having been informed that "Verstappen stayed out".

At that point, Alex Albon, whose Williams was fitted with the soft rubber, popped to the top of the timesheet, which validated a switch to slicks.

Ferrari eventually brought Leclerc in for a quick inters-to-softs turnaround, but too late relative to the track conditions.

"I mean, I called for slicks on the out lap, it was clearly for slicks," said Leclerc, clearly frustrated by Ferrari's decision to overrule his call.

"I think Alex did that and went earlier than everybody on the slicks. And that was clearly the right choice. There was no risk taken whatsoever. For some reason, the team decided otherwise. That's it.

"I think we are just making our life way too difficult. And in those situations, I had a clear opinion. And yeah, we decided to do something else. So I am frustrated.

"Having said that other drivers did the same strategy as us and went through Q3. But you are just relying on small details instead of an easy Q2 going through.

"When the track is dry, you need slick tyres. And I don't know what happened."

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Asked if he should have been more forceful in his request to switch to the dry tyre, Leclerc added: "I think there was no clearer way of expressing myself this time. So no.

"But I will speak internally with the team and try to understand what we can do because it's obviously not the first time that in those situations we are a bit on the wrong side.

"I don't want to comment on it too much. But we have to be better than that. And we cannot afford to do those mistakes again. So I'll speak with the team."

Although Albon provided a good indication of the soft tyre's potential, Leclerc wasn't aware of the Williams driver's lap times.

He was convinced however that track conditions warranted a switch to slicks.

"Again, I clearly said my opinion, more than that, I cannot really do," he said.

"I have no idea what Alex is doing in terms of lap times with the slicks. Maybe he's five seconds off, and I don't know, but I had a clear opinion.

"Obviously, Alex was fast. So again, I have to understand what the target was in doing that. What was the aim? Because the track was dry."

"You cannot be aware of everything that is going on on track. But seeing how fast [Albon] was, maybe we should have thought twice about coming in."

Unfortunately, as another rain front moved in over the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, slicks were no longer the optimal tyres.

"But again, you're just making yourself in a shitty situation because you are depending a lot on traffic, on your out lap on the slicks," Leclerc said.

"If you have people on inters coming behind when it's raining and that you are slowing down a little bit, you are sliding everywhere. So it's just not an ideal situation. And it was so much easier to go earlier. But again, it's like this."

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