Charles Leclerc ‘frustrated’ after another disappointing qualifying session

With time winding down within the second qualifying session Saturday, Charles Leclerc was on the surface wanting in to Q3. He wanted to by some means, in moist circumstances, submit a adequate lap time to advance to Q3.

That lap time by no means got here, and the motive force’s frustrations boiled over contained in the cockpit of his SF-23:

It marked the second race in a row that Leclerc did not advance to Q3.

Talking after qualifying, Leclerc remained annoyed at selections made throughout Q2. Whereas the groups, together with Ferrari, have been struggling to choose the most suitable choice in difficult circumstances, Leclerc famous that different drivers — equivalent to Alex Albon — have been rolling the cube with mushy tyres and never the intermediates.

Leclerc requested to make the change to softs, however the group needed him to a minimum of submit a lap on the intermediates to get a time on the board.

He finally made the change, nevertheless it got here later within the session, after others had posted higher occasions on the mushy compound, pushing his time on the intermediates down into the drop zone. He finally made the change to the softs, however as you may see on this graph from F1 Tempo, his greatest lap time remained the one posted on the intermediates, which was not adequate to see him by to Q3:

That left Leclerc in P11. He’ll begin the race in tenth, after a penalty handed right down to teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. dropped Sainz to eleventh, however that was little comfort after a troublesome day.

“I’m very annoyed with the qualifying,” stated Leclerc. “Not every part is [about the tyres] clearly as a result of some others did precisely the identical factor and nonetheless went by into Q3 [on intermediate tyres]. However we’re simply making our lives a lot harder.”

“We didn’t observe my instinct at that second and I believe that places us in a really troublesome scenario after that and we paid the value huge time,” Leclerc stated additional. “So I’m very annoyed and really dissatisfied with at this time, and tomorrow I’ll attempt to make one of the best race potential with the intention to come again.”

Points like this have hampered Ferrari courting again to final season. The group received off to a sizzling begin to start the 2022 marketing campaign, however failures and strategic errors noticed the Scuderia fall, as Crimson Bull pushed previous them within the Constructors’ standings.

There was hope that such errors can be a factor of the previous, however given their season so far, it appears little has modified.

“What I’ll say to the group will stay between the group and myself however there’s no secrets and techniques,” added Leclerc. “I’ll clearly converse with the group with the intention to enhance, as a result of it’s not the primary time that we’re on the unsuitable aspect in these circumstances.

Leclerc added “I’m very annoyed now and actually, we have to enhance and do a step ahead in any other case we’re all the time going to be dissatisfied so yeah – we have to enhance now.”

Nonetheless, there’s a likelihood that Leclerc can salvage issues on Sunday. Nonetheless, the very fact he’s in that place but once more is a supply of frustration.

“We had actually good tempo yesterday so hopefully we are able to have a clear dry race and are available again,” stated Leclerc.

“However once more it’s a troublesome Saturday and we’re all the time coming into Sunday with a really troublesome factor to do. Beginning P11 it’s not going to be simple to return again. I’m very annoyed.”

We’ll see if he can flip that frustration into one thing optimistic later at this time.