Ferrari’s tale of two drivers continued as Charles Leclerc picked up an “unexpected” podium at the British Grand Prix.
The Monegasque benefitted from Romain Grosjean staying out during the second safety car period to pull out a lead over the McLarens in fourth and then capitalised on Valtteri Bottas’ late puncture to sneak onto the rostrum in third.
The result means Leclerc has only finished twice in the points this season but both times have seen him on the podium.
“Yes, it’s definitely a lot more unexpected for this year that’s for sure,” he said, comparing Sunday’s result to the P3 finish he scored at Silverstone in 2019.
“We know we’ve been lucky to get to the podium but, apart from that, we’ve been satisfied with the way we’ve been working throughout the weekend.
Also Read:
- Vettel admits ‘rough start’ to final year at Ferrari ‘not ideal’
- Vettel still has ‘a lot to give’ in F1 as he makes admission on 2021 decision
“For sure we don’t want to be fighting for fourth place for so long, but, at the moment, that’s what the car is capable of.
“I think we extracted absolutely everything out of the strategy and the car. I’m very happy, it’s a very unexpected podium, so I’m more satisfied than last year with third place.”
The solid race pace was somewhat surprising after Leclerc struggled tremendously on Friday during his long run, but it vindicated the decision to retain the bold setup on his SF1000.
“Yes, I’m very happy with it, especially with the tyre management,” Charles stated.
“It was not easy, we had a very aggressive downforce level coming here, so we had quite a lot of speed down the straights, but it was very difficult in the corners.
“We were quite worried for the race, especially for the tyre degradation, but we did quite a good job on that.”
In contrast, teammate Sebastian Vettel had a much harder race on Sunday and only salvaged a point thanks to the tyre failures for Bottas and Carlos Sainz.
“The result was very poor. The car was very difficult to drive, I struggled to find my confidence, but I don’t know why,” the four-time champion explained.
“We need to have a good look, but certainly, if I struggle for so many laps in the race, from the beginning to the end there’s probably something that doesn’t stack up.
“It was not a very stressful race, but I just didn’t have a chance. People around me were faster, I was overtaken and it was very difficult to manage myself to stay on track,” he continued.
“Physically it was not a tough race at all because I could never attack, the car didn’t allow me to do what I like, so now we need to have a look at why and, obviously, we have the next weekend, so we can try and do better.”
