Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said that “everything went wrong” as soon as he left the pits in the final qualifying session in Singapore.
Leclerc noted that Ferrari “threw everything away” due to tire temperatures in the final part of the Singapore Grand Prix qualifying, causing him to lose his second place on the grid because the tires didn’t warm up. The Monegasque driver mentioned that his confidence in the car was renewed after a challenging third practice session where the team suddenly seemed to lose pace, as the cooler conditions worked in favor of the Italian team during the qualifying.
However, Leclerc could only set a lap time of 1:30.119 at the end of the critical Q3 session, following a red flag caused by his teammate Carlos Sainz’s crash. This lap, which was only enough for seventh place, meant he would start ninth and end Ferrari’s streak of consecutive pole positions at Marina Bay, which dated back to 2019.
Before heading out for his final Q3 lap, Leclerc said the front tires came out of the blankets far too cold, preventing him from competing with Lando Norris for pole position and Max Verstappen for the front row.
“Q1 and Q2 were going well; I had renewed hope after the troubled third practice session,” Leclerc stated. “But then I left the pits in Q3 and the front tires were much colder.”
“We prepared extensively to achieve that crucial single lap in qualifying, which we knew was as important as in Monaco, and when we left the pits, our front tires were too cold. This put us in a very bad situation for the entire weekend.”
“We still don’t know exactly what the problem is, but the reality is that we started the lap with two cold front tires, locked up at Turn 1, and that was it. I never had the front grip I wanted.”
“Even after the third practice, we expected to have a strong qualifying session and confirmed that we had the pace to do something good in Q1 and Q2. Then, in Q3, we threw everything away with the tire temperature issue. We need to investigate this.”
Leclerc was told by race engineer Bryan Bozzi that the front tires were “a bit cold” as he exited the pits, which led him to push a bit harder on his out lap to make up for it.
At the start of his fast lap, he went over the curb at Turn 2, which led to his lap time being invalidated. He then asked over the radio why it was “minus 10” at the front initially.
The Monegasque driver did not clarify whether that was the temperature delta shown on his steering wheel.
“I won’t go into the details of the numbers; it’s not exactly that,” he said.
“There was more to it than that. There was nothing we could do. I think we were in a good place, we were competitive, and I believe we did a good job.”
“But in my exit, I don’t know what was happening with the temperatures outside the pits because from that moment on, everything went wrong,” he said.
When asked what he expected if there hadn’t been temperature issues, Leclerc simply replied, “Maybe second place.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur disagreed with Leclerc’s views in a statement to Sky Italy, saying that the cars ahead exited slowly and that Leclerc lost tire temperature while leaving the pit lane.
“I need to discuss this with Charles because I think he opened the lap at the right temperature,” Vasseur stated.
“However, since no one wanted to open the lap and be first on the track, we all waited a bit longer in the pit lane and the garage, which caused us to lose some tire temperature at this stage.”
“But he pushed a bit harder and returned to the right target before the lap started,” he added.
