Ferrari lost the race in the first stint - Leclerc

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari had the car to write-up Red Bull in the Miami Grand Prix but the first stint highlighted a weakness it needs to address.

The championship leader started from pole and led away, with Max Verstappen moving into second place superiority of Carlos Sainz. On lap 9, Verstappen overtook Leclerc into Turn 1 and was worldly-wise to alimony the Ferrari at bay surpassing pulling away, opening up a gap of over seven seconds surpassing the pit stops. While Leclerc then pegged that gap in the second stint surpassing a safety car compact the pack, he says the medium tire issues forfeit him the race.

“It was quite good — on the nonflexible we were strong,” Leclerc said. “On the medium we struggled a little bit without five or six laps with the front tires and then we struggled and basically lost the race on that stint, losing the lead and losing quite a bit of race time considering of the front degradation. So we need to squint at that and be on top of it for the next race.

“But untied from that, I think on the nonflexible we were very competitive or at least as competitive as Max, and without the safety car I really thought that we will have a shot to unquestionably take when the lead but it wasn’t enough. We will have to unriddle the end of the run on medium, which is the weak point of this race.

“I think it is just the characteristics of both cars — Red Bull are quite quick on the straights, we are quite quick in the medium- and high-

speed but today I have to say I was quite surprised we are struggling increasingly than them on slow-speed corners. That was moreover a weakness on the medium tires and we need to squint at that.”

Leclerc believes the way Ferrari uses the softer tire compounds is proving salubrious over one lap and helping him secure three pole positions in the first five races, but is then plush over a race distance.

“In the race we need to, expressly on the softer compounds. On medium/soft it seems that it has been once two races that in terms of race pace they seem to be a bit stronger and managing that better. In quali we seem to put those tires in the right window which helps us, but on the long runs we struggle a bit increasingly than them.”