For Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, a poor qualifying in Montreal was followed by a disastrous Formula 1 race. After engine problems and a desperate attempt to save points with a daring strategy, they retired from the Canadian GP.
In wet conditions, the start was relatively quiet for the Monegasque driver from eleventh place. He was able to overtake Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon, but he had to let the two Haas drivers go early on – and that was not just because Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg were the only drivers to start on rain tires.
Leclerc is missing 80 hp of engine power
Already on lap two, Leclerc noticed problems with his engine. Communication with his new race engineer Bryan Bozzi became hectic. Attempts to fix the problem on the steering wheel failed. “It was very annoying because I had to press 10 to 15 buttons per lap,” said Leclerc. “It was still OK in the wet, but when the racing line dried out, a few centimeters would have been enough and that would have been it.”
Leclerc kept the Ferrari on the track, but he wasn’t particularly fast. He lost around half a second due to the problem on the straights. The more the track dried out, the more he lost because he had to drive at full throttle. Half a second turned into a whole second that the Monaco winner lost per lap on the straights.
According to team boss Fred Vasseur, the power unit was lacking 80 hp. After the race, the Frenchman was unwilling or unable to reveal exactly where the problem lay. However, he ruled out a defect in the combustion engine; instead, the control unit is suspected to have caused problems.
Given the difficult conditions, Ferrari was hoping for a race interruption to restart the engine. “It happened in Monaco, but not in Montreal,” said Vasseur, annoyed. That’s why they used a safety car phase just before the halfway point of the race to bring Leclerc into the pits and try to restart.
Because the restart took 29 seconds, Leclerc was unable to catch up with the field at the restart. Ferrari had not used the beginning of the safety car phase, but had brought Leclerc in at the end. Ferrari took the risk of fitting Leclerc as the first driver in the field with slicks – a questionable decision.
Rain comes, Ferrari mounts Leclerc slicks
The track dried out, but rain was expected again immediately after the stop – and it did come. The communication between Leclerc and race engineer Bozzi was like a comedy. While Leclerc wanted intermediates again, Bozzi tried to encourage his driver: “It’s only two laps of rain. Try to keep the car on the track and then you’ll be faster.”
“I’m losing 10 seconds per lap, I’m switching back to inters,” announced Leclerc. But Ferrari left him out for another lap. “Only turns one and two are wet,” Bozzi tried to appease him. “Damn it, now I’m losing 20 seconds per lap.” On lap 31, Ferrari took pity on Leclerc and put him back on intermediates.
After the race, Leclerc showed understanding for the strategy: “It was the best we could do at that point. I knew that with the problem we would finish the race outside the points, so we had to try something with slicks. I was more frustrated by the whole situation with the engine. If it had worked, it would have been our only chance to finish maybe ninth or tenth.”
On lap 40, Leclerc was once again shown mercy and allowed to end the race early in the garage – after he himself had asked for it. “I would be angry if he hadn’t been frustrated in this situation,” defended team boss Vasseur. The 26-year-old had long been lapped, was well outside the points and was clearly too slow.