F1 heads into the 2024 Canadian GP with no preset idea of who could be the frontrunner. Red Bull are under pressure with Ferrari and McLaren closing the gap to them, and their struggles could continue in Montreal. However, Charles Leclerc is not yet willing to accept the ‘favorites’ tag for Ferrari despite winning the last race in Monaco. The 26-year-old highlighted how even Red Bull’s Helmut Marko and McLaren’s Lando Norris often downplay their expectations when asked about their potential.
According to PitDebrief, Leclerc said, “I always say that, whether it’s Helmut one weekend, Lando the other, everybody doesn’t want to be going into a weekend hearing that they are favorites. So, you are never going to hear me say that we are 100% the favorites this weekend. And the same for them.”
Ferrari have been the second-best team this season after Red Bull. As the season has progressed, even McLaren have got into the mix for the win, as the Austrian team has grappled with some underlying issues with the RB20.
However, Leclerc wishes to downplay any chance of beating Red Bull, perhaps to avoid the risk of his claims not aging well over the Grand Prix weekend. He reasoned how the reality from Imola or Monaco may not hold “true” in Canada.
On top of that, all three teams could be quite “closely matched”. Thus, it is difficult for Leclerc to pinpoint a favorite.
This is quite common as even Marko and Norris use the same notion at every other race weekend. In fact, the McLaren driver stated in Imola how they are still the third-fastest team. However, in reality, they missed out on pole by less than a tenth of a second. Moreover, a charging Norris finished the main race within a second of Verstappen.
Thus, the bluffing and downplaying game will keep happening, according to Leclerc. About Ferrari’s race weekend’s performance, Leclerc feels whichever team does the better job will come out on top with several factors at play in Montreal.
Why is Charles Leclerc and everyone else so uncertain about the Canadian GP?
The Canadian GP track is often a great circuit for good racing and overtaking. However, the bumpy and kerby nature of the track will make things difficult for Red Bull. Meanwhile, Ferrari and McLaren are also unsure of how they would fare in Montreal due to the threat of rain and some resurfacing.
Leclerc addressed the rain factor in his comments and how it could disrupt Ferrari’s plans at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve. The Monegasque mentioned how they haven’t really driven these ground-effect cars in Montreal in rainy conditions during a race.
Last year’s Canadian GP weekend had a wet qualifying, but the Grand Prix on Sunday was completely dry in overcast conditions. Thus, the lack of representative race runs in wet weather could prove to be a big factor in who does well this weekend.
Besides, Red Bull’s issues with the bumps and kerbs could also be eased out due to the resurfacing done ahead of the 2024 Canadian GP. It would be interesting to see whether it catapults the Austrian team back into a comfortable advantageous position or keeps them at par with Ferrari and McLaren.
