Charles Leclerc’s Sunday fell apart when the Monte-Carlo track dried up after a delayed start to the race, and Ferrari opted to keep him on track longer on wet tires in a bid to switch directly to dry tyres.
But after Sergio Perez went into undercut range with the Intermediates, Ferrari pitted Leclerc for the same tires and dropped to third.
As the time to put on dry tires approached, Ferrari called Leclerc in for a second time shortly after his first stop and he had to wait behind Sainz for his pit stop , losing more time, dropping to fourth, behind his rival for the Formula 1 title, Max Verstappen.
Despite a second red flag for Mick Schumacher’s accident and a dry race to the finish, Leclerc was stuck in fourth position with no chance to fight back and missed out on his first career podium finish at home, although at least he finished and kind of broke his losing streak.
Following another disappointment at the Monaco GP, Leclerc said Ferrari had made mistakes with its strategy at the two pit stops and called on the team to improve on that aspect after seeing his gap to Verstappen in qualifying widen to nine points. .
“Sometimes mistakes can happen but there have been too many today in general,” Leclerc told Sky Sports .
“Obviously in those conditions we rely on what the team can see because you don’t see what the others are doing on intermediate or dry tyres.”
“They asked me if I wanted to go from extreme rain to dry and I said ‘yes, but not now, a little later’, but I don’t understand what made us change our minds and ride the intermediates.
“We sank and then they pulled me back behind Carlos. There have been a lot of mistakes and we can’t afford that.”
Leclerc also felt these mistakes were even more critical compared to previous years as Ferrari is fighting for the Formula 1 world championship against Red Bull.
“It’s been tough, like the other years, so I’m getting used to it and I’m going home disappointed, but we definitely can’t do that, especially at the moment we’re in,” he said.
“We are very strong right now, the pace is good, we have to take advantage of these opportunities, we can’t lose so many points like that, it’s not going from first to second, it’s from first to fourth, because after the first mistake, we made another one.”
“I love my team and I’m sure we’ll come back stronger, but it hurts a lot,” he concluded.
