After the F1 Singapore Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) said that the criticism of his tires after qualifying was misplaced and that he took responsibility for not doing his job as a driver, explaining that this led to a “really big price to pay” in the final.
After his teammate Carlos Sainz crashed alone, Leclerc had a lap deleted in Q3, which was effectively a one-shot race, due to the track limit at Turn 2, and he ended up in ninth place with no time. However, even if he had not been deleted, he would have finished in seventh place.
After qualifying, Leclerc explained that the incident was due to tyres, saying: “Above all it was a lack of temperature. The front tyres were already too cold when I left the garage, which caused them to lock up,” and asked the team to investigate the problem.
However, after finishing in fifth place on Sunday’s race – despite being blocked in the early stages by Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) – he admitted that his own mistake, rather than tyre issues, was responsible for his failure to achieve a good result in Q3.
Asked after the race if it had been a remarkable comeback, Leclerc replied: “I have mixed emotions.”
“I did a really, really good job today and I don’t think I could have done more. It was frustrating at the beginning of the race when I couldn’t do anything and just had to wait, but after Nico[Hulkenberg]and Fernando[Alonso]pitted I was able to push.”
“The pace was good and then I had a really strong second stint after I pitted and got back to fifth place, so I’m really happy with that.”
“But overall it was a bit of a disappointing weekend.”
“I was pretty upset about the tyres when I gave the interview yesterday, but looking back, yes the tyres were not quite in the right window, but that happens a lot in qualifying and I think the bigger issue was that I locked up in Turn 1 and went off the track and exceeded the track limits.
“So, thinking about it now, I guess yesterday was probably my fault.”
If he had been able to put together a good lap in Q3, he would have been in strong contention for the podium, and the SF-24 had the pace to do so on Sunday.
“Some qualifiers go well and some qualifiers you make mistakes, especially when you only have one lap and I paid the price for those mistakes,” Leclerc continued.
“At a track like Singapore (where overtaking is difficult), not getting a lap in Q3 can really cost you.”
“But if you look at today, I think we did a really, really good job. If you look at the weekend as a whole, we paid the price for yesterday’s mistake.”
The F1 circus will then have an unusual autumn break of just under four weeks. There are probably many exciting plans in the works. Leclerc was smiling as he expressed his enthusiasm for a comeback at the next race, the United States Grand Prix.
“I didn’t do well yesterday but I think I can bounce back in the next race because now I have a little bit of a break,” Leclerc said.
“I’m hoping to do well in Austin in qualifying, in the race and have a good weekend overall.”
In the 18th race of the 2024 F1 season, the Singapore Grand Prix, Lando Norris won by a margin of 20.945 seconds over Max Verstappen (Red Bull). His teammate Oscar Piastri took third place on the podium, and McLaren once again scored a large number of points.
The next race, the United States Grand Prix, which will be held at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), will kick off with Free Practice 1 on October 18th.
