Charles Leclerc, F1 driver

Since returning from the appendix surgery that ruled him out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sainz has outqualified Leclerc in both Australia and Japan, and won the Melbourne race from second on the grid.Leclerc has also finished behind his team-mate in both races, placing as runner-up at the Australian Grand Prix and finishing fourth behind the podium-finishing Sainz at Suzuka.Asked if it was ...

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The Ferrari driver's strong run of seven consecutive front-row starting positions ended in Australia where he qualified fifth before a penalty for Sergio Perez gifted him a place.He struggled again at Suzuka, where he couldn't better eighth after having to use a second set of tyres to guarantee safe passage out of Q1.In both races, he came through the field to take second and fourth positions ...

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The Mercedes driver had gone into the Suzuka race hopeful that the team could build on some promising potential shown in practice with a new set-up direction for the W15.But he was put on the back foot almost immediately from the restart of the red-flagged race after a minor clash with Charles Leclerc in the opening sequence of corners left him with car damage.That meant he suffered from excessive ...

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Leclerc, renowned for his one-lap pace, was only eighth fastest as he lapped 0.589 seconds slower than polesitter Max Verstappen while outgoing Scuderia team-mate Carlos Sainz ranked fourth.But the Monegasque was at a loss to explain the disappointing performance on his side of the garage, implying that it was just a freak episode that only happens “once in a season” as the fundamentals of the ...

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During FP1, the only dry Friday session, Melbourne winner Carlos Sainz set the best time of the Ferrari duo during a short flurry of hot laps conducted on softs but was nonetheless 0.213s shy of Max Verstappen's headline effort.In the meantime, Leclerc was eclipsed by both McLarens and stacked up sixth in the overall FP1 order, a quarter of a second away from his team-mate over his lap.The ...

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Bianchi suffered a serious accident in closing laps of the wet 2014 Japanese GP, and passed away in July the following year of his injuries.He had acted as a mentor figure for Leclerc, with the Monegasque regarding Bianchi as a “game changer” in his career. Their families were and remain close.Although the 2014 Suzuka event was held in October rather than April, the 2024 race marks the 10th ...

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Having sat out the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to undergo appendicitis surgery, Sainz had a successful return to racing in Melbourne, taking the win with little competition after race leader Max Verstappen was forced to retire due to a brake issue.Leclerc followed the Spaniard home in second place after qualifying only fifth, two tenths and a half slower than the lead SF-24.The Monegasque managed to ...

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Second-starting Sainz passed polesitter Max Verstappen around the outside on lap two before the Red Bull champion retired with a fiery rear-right brake failure. That enabled Leclerc to complete a Ferrari 1-2.While Verstappen’s car was ailing from the race start, which made the RB20 feel as though the “handbrake” was left on, the Ferrari duo believed they were already in contention for ...

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Third-placed Norris believes that he could have deprived Leclerc of second in Melbourne if McLaren had have gone for an undercut strategy, as Ferrari and team-mate Oscar Piastri did.But when this was put to Stella, he implied Ferrari won out on merit because the SF-24 is a faster car than the MCL60. The Italian added that a team orders call to swap Norris and Piastri was about minimising the risk ...

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The Briton had qualified ahead of Leclerc and remained ahead during the opening phase of the race, but fell behind during the opening pit phase as the Monegasque and Norris' McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri conducted earlier pitstops to claim the undercut. In an effort to chase Leclerc, McLaren conducted a swap between Norris and Piastri as the Australian's pace was slower, and Norris started to ...

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Having looked good in Friday's practice, Leclerc was less happy in Saturday's FP3 session, and in qualifying he struggled with his front tyres.He was fourth in Q1 and second in Q2, but tried a front wing change for his final run in Q3 in an attempt to find more performance.Leclerc was left a frustrated fifth after the "very aggressive" wing adjustment failed to pay off."To be honest, I think it's ...

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Only moments before, Verstappen had pipped Carlos Sainz by 0.057s as the Ferrari driver spent much of the hour on top owing to his performance on the medium tyre earlier on in the session.An interesting thread within FP3 concerned the rapid degradation of the soft tyres over a single lap, and impressive first sectors for those trying the red-walled C5 often were unable to retain that level of ...

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Off the back of some impressive pace on the opening practice day for the Australian Grand Prix, Leclerc feels that his Ferrari squad is in pretty good shape with the performance of its SF-24.And while he is under no illusions that Red Bull still holds an advantage at the front of the field, Leclerc believes that Ferrari can target a much better showing than it managed in the first two grands prix ...

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Lando Norris was fastest in Free Practice 1, lapping in 1m18.564s, while Leclerc paced FP2 with a quickest time of 1m17.277s.Australian GP FP1 results: Norris fastest from VerstappenWhat happened in Australian GP Free Practice 1?The opening session at Albert Park saw Norris set the pace for McLaren, edging out the Red Bull of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GP winner Max Verstappen by just 0.018s.Third ...

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A 1m17.277s from Leclerc, his second hot lap on soft tyres, handed him a handy advantage over the rest of the field and put him clear of then runner-up Carlos Sainz, who was shuffled down to third by Verstappen's later second soft run.The Dutchman had been late to parlay with the other runners in FP2 owing to a spot of damage to his Red Bull RB20, sustained in a kerb strike during FP1, and thus ...

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Leclerc opened his 2024 account with a first podium in last weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, one week on from team-mate Carlos Sainz also grabbing third in Bahrain.For Leclerc, who started from second behind polesitter and eventual winner Max Verstappen in both races, 2024 has gotten off to a much more auspicious start than last year, when he retired from the season opener and Ferrari's race ...

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After taking part in practice, regular Ferrari racer Carlos Sainz was forced to undergo surgery for appendicitis to leave the team to call on the services of Prema Racing FIA F2 driver Bearman.He had narrowly missed out on a Q3 appearance in qualifying so lined up 11th on the grid before launching well to then set about executing a string of well-judged passes - capped off by a dummy on Yuki ...

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An early crash for Lance Stroll meant Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton were a factor in the lead fight after a brief safety car period where they stayed out and did not pit, but they eventually finished in the pack behind Ferrari debutant Oliver Bearman.At the start, Verstappen and Leclerc launched in unison from the front row, with the polesitter soon swinging across his rival on the run to Turn ...

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Verstappen produced a 1m27.472s on his first run in Q3 but did not improve on his second attempt so that stood as the time to beat.Leclerc had only been fourth a massive 0.8s down after the first runs, where he had tried an additional warm-up tour to cure a handling problem he was suddenly feeling with new softs.On his second attempt with just a single warm-up effort, he cut Verstappen's advantage ...

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Ferrari made wholesale changes to its car after its drivers struggled throughout 2023 with its unpredictable behaviour and sensitivity to changing conditions.That made it particularly hard for Leclerc and Sainz to keep up their race pace, often qualifying well before dropping far behind the Red Bulls.But while Red Bull still has the dominant car, as evidenced by Max Verstappen's emphatic win in ...

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Former Renault and Sauber F1 team principal Vasseur took control of the Scuderia in December 2022, when he was named as the replacement for Mattia Binotto.During his tenure, Vasseur has confirmed Enrico Cardile as Ferrari’s new technical director, replaced Laurent Mekies as racing director and, most notably, lured seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton away from Mercedes to join the famous ...

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The Ferrari driver was constantly locking up his front tyres throughout the 2024 F1 opener, as he dropped from second to an eventual fourth place.Leclerc, who had been expected to be Max Verstappen's closest challenger, explained the issue struck from the opening lap before he was able to start managing it "at lap 15 or 20"."It was impossible in the first 15 laps, the issue was getting a lot worse ...

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Three-time world champion Verstappen will begin his title defence from first place on the grid in Sakhir after his 1min29.179sec final flying lap eclipsed main threat Leclerc by 0.228s.Leclerc's session-topping Q2 run, a 1m29.165s, would have been quick enough to deny Verstappen the top spot. However, the Ferrari driver dropped time during the final sector.The Monegasque put this down to Ferrari ...

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The reigning champion had taken a back seat during the opening two stages of qualifying but, when it came down to Q3, he set a demanding benchmark of 1m29.421s - and then beat his own effort amid the final runs to settle on a 1m29.179s.This was slower than Leclerc's time from Q2, but the Monegasque was unable to replicate that effort in the final runs of the Q3 session, and could only manage a ...

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Mercedes had a low-key test at Sakhir in terms of outright pace, but the Brackley team topped the times in FP2, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell.Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari, 0.395s down on pacesetter Hamilton, while Charles Leclerc made a mistake on his quick lap and thus did not set a representative time in ninth. However, the Monegasque driver believes that the team is in a ...

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