07/07/2025 12:00
Charles Leclerc has insisted he "wants the answers" to his
mysterious lack of pace during the British Grand Prix, where he
finished second-to-last on the road. The Ferrari driver crossed the
line in P14 and was 84 seconds behind race winner Lando Norris.
Even more damning is the race was interrupted by safety car
interventions. It was an uncharacteristically poor afternoon for
the Monegasque driver, who had numerous off-track excursions,
including an incident with former team-mate Carlos Sainz, which
cost the Williams driver a shot at points. That followed an
underwhelming qualifying session, where a mistake in his final Q3
run robbed him of potentially a front-row start. He scolded himself
over team radio for the error , but worse was yet to come. Leclerc,
who did not want a wet race , changed from intermediate tyres to
the medium dry compound after the formation lap at Silverstone.
Whilst he was not alone in his thinking, it proved to be the wrong
choice. When reflecting on the call and whether it ruined his
afternoon, the eight-time grand prix winner described the
conditions that led to his miscalculation. "No, I'm not happy with
the decision," he told media, including RacingNews365 . "That was
my decision. "The first and second sector was kind of for slicks.
Third Sector was wet, but this, I expected it. I had seen it. "But
I expected the track to dry a lot quicker. It did not. We were
[among] quite a few to have done that mistake, of thinking that it
will dry quickly." However, Leclerc felt that it played only a
small role in being "nowhere" during the 52-lap race, where he was
around a second off the pace. The 27-year-old underlined his desire
to establish the reasons behind his dismal display from Ferrari
before returning home for the break before the Belgian Grand Prix
in late July. "This is part of the reason why we had a bad race,
but I'll say that the biggest part is the lack of pace today, and
on that, I want the answers before going back home," he explained.
"So, I'll work hard to try and understand what was going on there."
