Charles Leclerc was the Driver of the Day in Suzuka after putting in a brilliant recovery drive, one in which he finished the race in P4 despite starting from P8. One of the main highlights in the eyes of the Tifosi was when Leclerc let his teammate, Carlos Sainz, pass without a fight. As it turns out, there was no point in fighting Sainz because the Spaniard was on a different strategy altogether, and Leclerc couldn’t catch him.
Leclerc told Viaplay that he was happy with the SF-24 in Suzuka, contrary to how he felt in the previous three rounds of this campaign. One of the main things he spoke about, and the entire F1 community noticed was the Ferrari cars’ tire degradation.
Leclerc pitted just once in Suzuka, a circuit that is historically hard on the tires, but coasted home to finish in fourth, just one place behind Sainz. However, fans wondered if he could have been on the podium instead of his outgoing teammate.
Leclerc was having a good race but didn’t provide any kind of resistance to Sainz as he comfortably finished P3. To this, Leclerc said (as quoted by Formule1.nl), “We honestly did not expect to drive side by side. We had different strategies and Carlos was much faster on newer tires. I didn’t feel like fighting him.”
With rumors of a rift between Sainz and Leclerc being brushed off, the Maranello-based outfit will now be looking to build on their promising performance at the Japanese GP.
Issues of the past not haunting Charles Leclerc and Co.
After the race in Suzuka, it was evident that Ferrari is under much better management behind the scenes. With pit-stops, strategies, and team orders, the Italian stable has struggled a lot over the years. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were victims of the same in 2022 when the team principal was Mattia Binotto.
In 2023, Fred Vasseur took over, and after a year of transition, the team’s dynamics look to be in a much more stable place. Even though Sainz’s contract won’t be renewed, he is utilizing these changes at Ferrari to the best, with a win and two podium finishes in the three races he has competed in so far this season.
Leclerc, on the other hand, is struggling when compared to Sainz’s blistering start. But the Monegasque will be the poster boy in this ‘brand new’ team, heading into the regulation changes of 2026. Surely, winning a world championship has to be on the cards for Charles Leclerc sometime in the near future.
