Charles Leclerc has said he cannot understand how Ferrari managed to be so competitive in the Dutch Grand Prix after their stunning third place at Zandvoort.
Ferrari had a tough weekend before the race, with Leclerc qualifying in sixth and Carlos Sainz failing to make Q3, but both cars made impressive progress on Sunday, finishing third and fifth respectively. Leclerc held off Oscar Piastri for the final podium spot, finishing just 2.5 seconds behind Max Verstappen, but it’s hard to see where Ferrari’s performance came from.
“That’s a very good question, and I think the best question is to understand why we’re wrong 9/10 of the time. [in qualifying] And then suddenly I got pretty strong [in the race]“The car is exactly the same,” Leclerc said. [In qualifying] We worked like crazy. [In the race]We were strong, and these are the kinds of things we need to strive for.
“I think as much as we analyse all the bad surprises we’ve had throughout the season, we also have to understand when we do good things. I don’t think we can explain it as a team right now. So it’s a great result. I’m really happy to be on the podium. And I think it’s a really good surprise. But we have to understand it to perform at our best more often.”
Piastri was ahead of Leclerc at the start of the race, but Ferrari made their first pitstop early to catch both McLaren and George Russell. Piastri quickly overtook Russell after his stop, but was unable to get past Leclerc, much to the surprise of the Ferrari driver.
“It wasn’t [easy]Because my engineer told me about Oscar’s lap times. When he was in free air, he was much faster than mine, I think by almost a second. Then when he got close, I pushed a little bit more and gained a fifth of a second. And because of the dirty air, he probably lost three quarters of a second.
“He stayed behind and pressured me quite a bit for two or three laps, but he couldn’t stay there because he was overheating. It was a really good strategy. I didn’t expect to be third until the end, but we did really well as a team. I don’t think there was anything more we could have done.”
The Italian Grand Prix takes place at Monza this weekend, and Leclerc admits it is difficult to predict how Ferrari will fare as they upgrade their home race.
“Again, it’s really, really hard to predict. If you asked me that question, [on Saturday]I told you, it was going to be really hard. [Now] Much better. If I could understand what’s going on in my car, I’d be pretty optimistic about the future. But for now, I don’t quite understand it yet.
“There’s going to be an upgrade soon. I can actually say it now. Because of Fred. [Vasseur] That being said, it will be the same in Monza. And I hope that will help us and help close the gap. But until the upgrade, I always said that the most important thing for us is just to limit the damage. And [at Zandvoort]We are targeting P6.
“Realistically, I think on paper, that’s what we were fighting for. But after three or four laps, the pace was there. And we were able to get P3, which was a nice surprise again. That’s a good point. But now, I’m just hoping that the upgrades will help us take another step forward.”
