Charles Leclerc labelled his current Formula 1 hardships as «worse than a nightmare», as an early call for intermediate tyres at the British Grand Prix cost him any chance of scoring points.
The Monegasque driver was running seventh in the opening third of the Silverstone race having passed Lance Stroll into Stowe on lap 13, and was looking to make greater strides up the order before light rain began to fall over the Northamptonshire circuit.
Although grip was at a premium, with a handful of drivers getting caught out by the slippery conditions, most did not feel the need to pit for intermediates. However, Ferrari called Leclerc in at the end of lap 19 to take the grooved compound for the lower-grip conditions.
He rejoined the circuit ahead of Valtteri Bottas, but was soon passed by the Finn as it became patently clear that the intermediate was not the tyre to be on, and continued to lose time behind the Sauber. When the heavier rain did hit, Leclerc had to stop again as his initial set were already heavily worn.
«[It was] clearly the wrong [strategy]. I’ll look back into it. Obviously, with the decision, with the message I got and the information I had in the car, I felt like it was the right one,» Leclerc explained.
«It was raining quite a lot in Turn 15. I was told that in this lap, the rain was going to be very heavy, so I stopped to try and anticipate.
«However, the rain came eight or nine laps later. That was obviously the end of our race from that moment onwards. Very frustrating, another weekend to forget, and it starts to be a lot.
«It’s very hard [period]. I don’t really have the words to explain it, but it’s been four races that it’s been worse than a nightmare. I hope we can come back soon.»
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Leclerc added that it was difficult to view the opening laps to his race as positive given the outcome, and wanted to review the intermediate call with the team.
He added that the team was in a «tricky situation» after rolling back on its Barcelona upgrade to quell the high-speed corner bouncing, and hoped to find a resolution after coming across a more consistent balance at Silverstone.
«It’s really difficult to look at positives on days like this. I just want to go back with the team, that we analyse the way we are making those decisions on my side, and why we were on the wrong side today,» he said.
«It’s a tricky situation that we’re in at the moment. The upgrades brought us the numbers that we were expecting but also brought us quite a lot of bouncing in the high-speed.
«For a track like this we decided that it was probably better having a bit less performance but having more consistency, and I think that was the right choice.
«Going forward, we’ll analyse all the data we had until now with the two packages and try to understand if there’s anything we haven’t understood yet.
«The bouncing was [better], so the consistency was better.»