Charles Leclerc said he got “no real answer” from Ferrari after questioning the Q1 strategy which went wrong in Monaco.
While all eyes were on Sebastian Vettel trying to make the cut after hitting the wall on his first run, the hometown favourite was slowly edging down the times as others improved and he stayed in the pits.
It was a complete surprise then when the German would eliminate his teammate with his final run, leaving Leclerc only 16th on the grid.
“I asked whether they were sure [I was safe], they told me ‘we think we are’,” he commented post-session.
“I said ‘shouldn’t we go out again?’ but yeah, there was no real answer.
“I think they thought we would go… I don’t know, I didn’t have any explanations yet in detail, [but the result is] a very difficult one to take.”
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After completing his run, Leclerc was seen being wheeled back to the weighbridge having missed the call entering the pits, which took up several minutes.
But the 21-year-old denied it played a role in the final outcome.
“Yeah, actually we had plenty of time, even when we went out of the box to go out again,” Leclerc stated.
“The weighbridge was not the problem, we still had the fuel to go again and only change tyres. None of this was a problem. I need some explanations.”
What it does mean is Leclerc now faces a big challenge to make his way back through the field on Sunday, but he is hoping for a little assistance.
“Hopefully rain, and then there will be a bit of lottery in there,” he said on what he’d like in the race. “If it’s dry, it’s going to be boring. I’ll have to take a lot of risks I think, even risking to crash.
“In the end, that’s the only thing we need to do now, is to try and be extreme in our overtaking because this is a track where it’s basically impossible to overtake, so we will see.”
