Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari F1 team principal, at the end of qualifying for the Grand Prix of Formula 1 in Miami he fought hard to defend Charles Leclerc, guilty of having hit the barriers again, compromising his qualification.
It was certainly not a happy Saturday for Charles Leclerc: the Monegasque, immediately after making a mistake in the first attempt of Q3, definitively lost control of his car during the last lap of the session, violently crashing the rear of the SF23 against the barriers.
To console Leclerc, in addition to the love of his many fans, Fred Vasseur himself also thought about it, who explained to the microphones of Sky Sport F1 the reasons for the Monegasque’s mistake.
“I think Charles was at the limit,” explained the French coach. “In his first attempt he set the best time in the first two sectors. He was fighting for pole position, but it went the way it went. The crash is obviously unfortunate because he had the speed to be on the front row. When you fight for pole you have to push, and today it can’t be said that he pushed too hard. Last year you said he should push harder, now you say he pushes too much. I’m not saying it’s good to always go to the limit, but it’s better to try like this rather than finish qualifying thinking ‘if I had pushed harder I could have done better’.
Compared to what he expects to see in the race, however, Vasseur said:
“We have to see the weather for tomorrow, the forecasts are not good. I haven’t seen Charles’ car, we’ll have to look at the rear, but it should be okay. The pace at the start of qualifying was good, for both Carlos and Charles. The top speed disadvantages us compared to Red Bull, but we have to try to recover. It will be a long race and with the weather forecast at the limit, but we have the chance to recover”.