Fred Vasseur has apologised to Charles Leclerc for the latest mistake from the Ferrari pit wall that again compromised his driver’s home race in Monaco.
A year ago, polesitter Leclerc was undermined by a strategic gaffe that cost him a shot at victory as he was forced to settle for fourth position, an error which ultimately proved to be the beginning of the end to a title challenge that had started so brightly.
Twelve months on, and in one of the best qualifying battles seen for many years, Leclerc finished just over a tenth of a second behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and 0.022s behind second-on-the-grid Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin.
Unfortunately for Leclerc, he was hit with a three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren’s Lando Norris through the tunnel during Q3, relegating him to sixth, which proved to be his finishing position.
In a stewards’ report on the penalty, Ferrari was criticised for not providing Leclerc with the crucial information that Norris was on a fast lap behind him. Instead, they were simply discussing with him the grid situation.
“He’s been a bit frustrated in Monaco for a couple of years now and for sure qualifying was tough,” said team principal Vasseur.
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“Initially, it was tough losing pole position by one-tenth (of a second), or something like this, and to lose the first row by two hundredths, and then the call.
“What else can I do other than apologise on behalf of the team and understand how we can do a better job, to improve the communication between the pit wall and Charles in this situation – on both sides.
“It’s also due to the circumstances as to where it happened, – into the tunnel and so on. Okay, we have to avoid trying to find excuses because it’s the worst way if you want to improve. We just have to correct.”
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Leclerc conceded to the fact that what took place on Saturday was hurtful, even more so as it was another issue to blight his home event.
“I got the information too late and that put us a little bit on the back foot (for the race),” said Leclerc.
“Of course, it’s frustrating. A weekend like this anywhere is frustrating, but at home, it’s even more frustrating.
“On the other hand that’s where we need to keep our head up. The season is long, it’s not the only race on the calendar even though it probably means a bit more than the others.
“But the points are the same, so we need to restart again in Barcelona, hopefully having a great weekend there.”
Vasseur has promised he and his team will look deeper into the matter to further understand the issues and ensure there is no repeat
“We clearly made a mistake and this cost us a lot because I think starting from P3 it could have been another race, but we have to learn from it,” he added.
“Honestly, I’m not trying to find an excuse or something like this, we have to review completely the situation.
“I didn’t want to do it after qualifying because we were focused on the race. But after we will have a look.”
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