Charles Leclerc opted not to change a damaged Ferrari front wing during the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix despite the consequential “big, big loss” in performance.
Rounding the ever-tightening Turn 1 at the Shanghai International Circuit, Leclerc found himself sharing the same piece of tarmac as Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, clipping the rear of the Briton’s car with his front wing.
That struck off the front-left endplate and despite suffering a significant performance loss, Lecler continued with the damaged wing for the entirety of the Grand Prix.
The reason was purely down to track position as the front runners opted for a one-stop strategy and losing the time swapping for a new front wing in the pits wasn’t worth risking in Leclerc’s eyes.
“Of course, we are speaking about a big, big loss on my car,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.
“So, there was for sure the potential to do a lot better. We didn’t want to take the eight seconds at the pit stop of changing the front wing because then I would have… need to overtake cars.”
Leclerc tried to challenge Mercedes’ George Russell for third to no avail after Ferrari executed a driver swap with Hamilton.
He later slipped into the clutches of Max Verstappen, finishing fifth.
Leclerc argued “We were very weak in Turn 12 so that was making us very vulnerable with the cars behind.
“It was very, very difficult to make any overtakes because on the way up to Turn 14 we were just too far.
“So, I didn’t want to take that risk [of changing the wing].
“I just wanted to keep track position by then and try to maximise the result.”
Ferrari taking positives from Shanghai
Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur rued the impact of Leclerc’s wing damage, which Race Engineer believed to be worth “20-30 points of downforce.”
Vasseur reasoned the damage proved costly regarding tyre management but was positive regarding the deficit to McLaren in first and second amid the circumstances.
“This is the positive of the weekend, but [Leclerc] struggled a bit on track at the end with the tyres because, with the loss of the front wing, it was much more difficult to manage,” he said (via Autosport).
“But at the end, overall we finished 20 seconds behind the McLaren with this damage. I think it’s a very good result and very strong result.”
Leclerc too was taking the positives from Shanghai, saying “I think we were generally quick, we’ve seen it yesterday with Lewis, myself we saw it towards the end of the sprint where I was very strong.
“All in all, I think we had a really good race car and today I did a step with the car and I think that made it a lot better for today.”
Leclerc also made a point of absolving Hamilton of blame for the Turn 1 incident in his conversation with Sky.
“It’s not Lewis’ [Hamilton] fault at all and on my side, I was just around the inside trying to position the car for Turn 3.
“Lewis didn’t know I was there, I did not expect Lewis to come back taking the apex at the moment he was on the outside.
“At the end it’s a racing incident, this is not the first and last time it will happen.
“It’s a shame that it happened between the two red cars but obviously there was no bad intentions for either of us.
So that was unfortunate and obviously that costed me quite a bit for the rest of the race.”
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc: Ferrari qualifying in China has exposed true gap to McLaren
