Charles Leclerc has said he is “not too worried” about his minimal high-fuel running this weekend hampering his attempts to win the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Leclerc, who won the last race at Monza, surged to a fourth consecutive pole position around the Baku streets with a three-tenth margin over McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
The Monegasque’s initial attempt in the last segment would have been enough to clinch top spot, but he ended up going three-tenths quicker to extend his advantage.
Leclerc has admitted that retaining that original time in his pocket in Q3 meant he was able to take additional risks that delivered a marked improvement at the death.
“Well, it was a good lap,” Leclerc said. “I just took a little bit more risk compared to the first attempt in Q3.
“It was important to just have a lap on the board, and then in the second lap, you just take more risk and see what happens.
“Luckily, I finished both of the laps, and they were good laps.
“The car felt really good since FP1. Honestly, we barely changed the car from FP1 to now. Straight away, I felt happy, and the balance remained really good.
“We had to counter a little bit the track evolution because there’s a lot of track evolution here, but the feeling was there straight away in FP1.
“Even though there were not many laps in FP1 and FP2, that didn’t stop us to recover after that and to be at ease for all the weekend.”
However, Leclerc has conceded that there is a question mark over how his Ferrari car will handle on high fuel as he was unable to complete a race run during practice.
The seven-time F1 race winner crashed at Turn 15 in the opening practice session and then a problem in FP2 also limited his overall track time compared to his rivals.
“I didn’t do a lap with high fuel, but it’s been a pretty strong point of the car this year, so I am not worried going into tomorrow’s race,” he insisted.
“But obviously, we need to do things right. I’ll have to do a bit of homework tonight in order to get ready for tomorrow.
“But I’m not too worried that we’ll do the best job with our package, and then we’ll see whether it’s good enough to win the race tomorrow or not.”
Leclerc has been unable to convert his three previous poles in Baku, but he has stressed that Ferrari will have a lot to negotiate prior to thinking about halting that run.
Asked what it would mean to get the win over the line on this occasion, Leclerc responded: “It would be nice.
“In ’21 and ’20, I think, it was quite unexpected, the pole position, so we didn’t have the pace in the car to win. No, sorry, ’21 and ’23.
“In ’22, we had a good car and then the engine blew up, so hopefully tomorrow the pace is there and we don’t have anything that stops us to win it.
“But again, before thinking about the final result, there are still lots of laps around this track, and it’s a very difficult track, so we’ll see tomorrow.
“But in the meantime, I’ll just make sure that I am doing the best preparation possible.”
