There are still 15 races to go, including the Spanish GP, before Lewis Hamilton joins the Italian outfit. However, Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur is already disappointed with the output of his current driver compared to his future teammate. He made this confession after the Spanish GP qualifying session in which Charles Leclerc qualified fifth.
Leclerc was beaten by Hamilton whose W15 has given him a sudden burst of performance in the last two races and he qualified P3 for the race. However, despite Ferrari’s current struggles, Vasseur believed Leclerc was fast enough to beat the seven-time champion but his mistakes hampered the final result.
Leclerc had a frustrating Saturday overall. First, he received a reprimand for his on-track bust-up with Lando Norris. The Monegasque had to back out of his push lap because of the Brit’s infringement. In response, the 26-year-old nudged his friend’s MCL38 on Turn 6 perhaps out of frustration.
These frustrations continued in qualifying as he made a costly mistake in the last part of qualifying. This was the mistake without which he could’ve beaten Hamilton and qualified on the second row.
As seen on X posted by user @leclercdata, Vasseur said, “We’re a bit disappointed as Charles made a mistake in T5. I think we lost P3 there but it’s part of the game. You have to push and this is how errors are made.”
fred vasseur: “we’re a bit disappointed as charles made a mistake in T5, i think we lost P3 there but it’s part of the game. you have to push and this is how errors are made.”
“i didn’t expect to be closer here in spain because others are not sleeping and they’re brining new… pic.twitter.com/4EEYfPBwy6
— leclerc data (@leclercdata) June 22, 2024
He also admitted they did not expect to be this close in Barcelona with the majority of the grid bringing upgrades. However, these are part of the good problems as they will try to maximize points in the race.
Charles Leclerc confesses he did not purposely nudge Lando Norris
The coming together between Leclerc and Norris generated a lot of chatter after the practice session in the build-up to qualifying. However, the incident reminiscent of Sebastian Vettel’s angry tap on Hamilton’s car back in the day was not on purpose. ESPN quoted the Monegasque admitting he was just trying to get off the racing line.
“Yeah, well, I mean the version is very simple,” Leclerc said. “Lando exited the pit lane and I was behind on a push lap. Then when he aborted, I also aborted, I braked to be alongside him and I misjudged.”
“So I was on the right, I didn’t want to impede either of the cars behind, and so I was a bit in the middle by being frustrated and looking in the mirrors to try and not impede, and then we collided, but it was more misunderstanding more than anything.”
“He’s going to get a penalty for that!”
Another look at Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc’s incident pic.twitter.com/7PhibKQmg4
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 22, 2024
A simple misunderstanding more than anything else. After all, it was just a practice session. So, despite what it seemed Leclerc did not drive into the McLaren man on purpose.
