For Ferrari, it was the best of weekends in Monaco as Charles Leclerc and won his maiden home race and Carlos Sainz claimed third on the podium. Next time in out it was worst of weekends for the team from Maranello. Neither driver made it into Q3 in Canada and mistakes during the race contributed to neither Ferrari reaching the chequered flag.
Fred Vasseur has been shaking things up since arrival at the Scuderia for the 2023 season. The team has come on leaps and bounds and is a serious contender for the constructors’ title this year.
Leclerc race engineer removed suddenly
Red Bull do not have the consistency of results from their drivers. Perez in particular who has just been re-deigned by the team. While the Mexican’s team mate has won six of the none rounds completed so far, Checo is languishing down in fifth, some 87 points Max Verstappen.
Race wins for Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz see them ahead of the hapless Perez who Red Bull boss Christian Horner defends week in and out. Yet despite things going swimmingly for Ferrari this year, Vasseur made a unilateral to replace Leclerc’s engineer before the Emilia Romagne Grand Prix.
Leclerc was without explanation for the team’s decision to remove Xavier Marcos Pedro who has been the voice in his year since the Monegasque driver arrived at Ferrari in 2019. When asked at the FIA press conference the reason for the change, Fred Vasseur muttered the usual excuses including ‘re-organisation’ and ‘promotion.’
Bryan Bozzi is now the appointed race engineer for Leclerc and the clarity of decision making communicated to the driver appears on the whole to be an improvement. Marcos had a heavy accent when speaking English and his slow delivery made for comical sounding exchanges over team radio.
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Ferrari disaster in Montreal
Whether Xavier was direct enough for Vasseur appears to be one of the reasons the Frenchman was removed from the pit wall. However, the wheels came off for Ferrari last time out in Montreal and it appeared the communication with Leclerc and his engineer was not working well at all.
Having failed to make the top ten in qualifying, the task for the Scuderia was always going to be a big one. Now F1 journalist Rebecca Clancy reports to The Piranha Club podcast there is “tension” between Charles and Bozzi as mistake after mistake followed the Monegasque driver thought the race on the Ilse de Notre Dame.
Leclerc’s task got much harder early in the race when he was hampered by a power unit issue making difficult for Charles to make headway through the field. Speaking to Bozzi on the radio he was told he was losing half a second a lap.
“It feels like way more than half a second?” responded Leclerc to which Bozzi replied, “yes its increased, were most close to a second now.”
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Leclerc disagrees with pit stop decision
When he pitted, Leclerc was held way to long in the pits as a reboot was attempted to solve the engine issues. The team meanwhile had fitted Charles with the hard tyres, so he could run to the end of the race. The problem was, it was still raining and harder.
Leclerc was incensed asking if he should box again for inters and Bozzi replied: “It’s only going to last only one, two laps.” Charles was not happy and he pointed out he was ‘losing like 10 seconds a lap’ and the team finally indicated via Bozzi he should box for intermediate rain tyres.
This tension between Charles and his engineer suggests there’s a lot of work to do before the relationship is slick. All this while Leclerc is the closet rival to Max Verstappen so time is of the essence for Ferrari to toughen up their communication in such circumstances.
Talking about the Monegasque driver’s race, Clancy said: “I thought one of the interesting things from this weekend and Charles Leclerc in particular was he has a new race engineer, he has for a couple of races now and I feel there’s quite a bit of tension and I don’t know how much trust there seems to be in that relationship.
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Relationship needs work
“I wonder if the decision to go onto the hard tyre while it was still raining and Charles Leclerc said, we have to do something, we have to gamble and there was no real pushback saying, ‘We can see the radar’, we heard them say it was going to last two laps, but it didn’t, it lasted longer.
Clancy believes the mix up over hard and inter tyres demonstrates the relationship is not there yet and compares it to the one Lewis Hamilton has with Bono [Peret Bonnington]. “OK that relationship is now in year nine or 10 or wherever we’re up to,” Clancy observes.“But that relationship is so important, it’s so crucial because it’s the only person that the driver gets to talk to within the team and it doesn’t feel like it’s clicking.”
Leclerc and Bozzi will be at it again at the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, with another weekend under their belt as the relationship grows. Ferrari will be hoping to bounce back after a pointless weekend in Montreal at the Barcelona circuit which should suit their aerodynamics better.
The goal for the Scuderia is clear. They need both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to be finishing ahead of Sergio Perez at each race and stealing points from Max when they can.
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Staggering salary: Newey dea
A month and a half after Adrian Newey announced his departure from Red Bull Racing, speculation continues to swirl about the legendary designer’s next career move. Reports have emerged that a lucrative deal with Ferrari was signed as early as last April, reigniting talk of his future in F1.
Adrian Newey’s departure from Red Bull was initially justified by the renowned engineer as a necessary break from the high-stress environment of Formula One. Newey cited both physical and mental exhaustion as the main reasons for his departure.
However, he hinted that his retirement from the sport may not be permanent, stating that he still has a passion for F1, a sport he has been a part of for over four decades…. READ MORE
