Leclerc: ‘It was weird wearing our tires’

Charles Leclerc passed Max Ferstappen at the start of today’s 21-lap, 100-kilometer sprint race at the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola and maintained the relative lead over Dutch RBR until lap 17.

Then the soft Ferrari tires started to show more grit than Ferstappen’s, who treated them carefully during the short race only to attack at the end – as he did by beating them, 8 points of the sprint race along with pole position for tomorrow’s GP.

Leclerc said the damage was something the Scuderia didn’t anticipate: “I had a little more wear and tear. That was strange, it’s not the level [φθοράς] that we expected we’d have it” Monegasque radioed its engineers on the way back to the pits.

When he left F1-75 he said in his statements at the end: “We struggled with the tires at the end, so we’ll have to analyze that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is the main race and we need to make sure we’re ready. Our speed was good up to that point, then we started to wear out a bit on the left front [ελαστικό] and we lost it to the end. “But we will work and come back stronger tomorrow.”

Monegasque added: “I got off to a very good start. We didn’t stand on the sidelines in the first corner, so I’ve been able to focus on my own race ever since. I tried to push a little at the beginning to get out of the belt DRS by Max in order not to be vulnerable. But I paid the price a bit later in the race and struggled with it grit the tire in the last 2-3 laps”.

It may be different for the toughest erasers in tomorrow’s main race. Pirelli has brought its three midsoles (C2-C3-C4) to Imola and the management of the waist and hard soles, although used in the 63 laps of the race, will have different specifications for Ferrari and RBR.

“I think our speed is similar [με της RBR]. In the end, the tire wear phase was decisive. If we manage to heal that tomorrow, we will surely be in the fight for victory. If not, it gets a little more difficult.”concluded Leclerc.