Time to get Ferrari up to speed in the wet: Leclerc says experiments will pay off

Wet-weather performance has long been one of the major weaknesses of the cars from Maranello. The Italian team pledged to finally address it ahead of the current season, only for this to turn out to be one of the driest years in Formula 1 history. After qualifying in Sao Paulo, however, Charles Leclerc reports the first major signs of progress.

You may remember this year’s pre-season testing in Barcelona. While most teams sat out a rain-soaked Tuesday, Ferrari willingly took to the wet track. The aim was to assess the SF-26 and its behaviour in the wet. The initial results were positive.

Several months then passed before the next wet running. During that time, teams introduced several upgrade packages, and with engineers unable to test them in the wet, Ferrari’s efforts to improve in changeable conditions also faded from view.

In Sao Paulo, however, Charles Leclerc got to work. “It was a qualifying session that was much more positive than the result we achieved. I’m not satisfied with the result, but I think this was one of those sessions where I learned a lot, and where we learned a lot as a team. Knowing that we had a 10-place grid penalty, I decided to be much more aggressive in terms of the directions I explored during qualifying, with the front wing, with other things, and with the tools on the steering wheel.”

The information gathered will provide valuable input into the development of next year’s car, which should finally be able to keep pace with its rivals in the wet as well. “I think it was an experiment that will pay off, because I’ve been at Ferrari for nine years now, and to be honest, I’ve never had the same feeling in the wet that I used to have in the junior categories. The wet has always been my strong point, but at Ferrari I’ve always struggled, and that’s something we still need to figure out.”

“However, I think today was positive because we tried so many things, and at certain points during qualifying, in conditions where I usually have absolutely no feeling with this car, I actually had a very good feeling,” said a pleased Leclerc.

To establish exactly where the limits of the car and its set-up lay, the engineers had to push beyond them. “The feeling was really good, but in Q3, as we continued experimenting, we ended up on the wrong side of things. It was a session where we had a lot of performance at certain points, and much less at others, especially on the intermediates towards the end.”

“But honestly, it was a good session. We tried a lot of different things. We knew we were going to take the penalty anyway, so we could afford to take a few more risks and experiment much more with the car, even coming into the pits during runs,” he explained of his visits to the mechanics.

Leclerc will start down in 14th on Sunday after taking a new internal combustion engine, but that did not dampen his satisfaction with Saturday. “Although there are parc fermé restrictions and we can’t change too many things, there are still certain adjustments we can make, and they allowed us to understand a lot of things today. So, it was a positive session.”

Ferrari are certainly not giving up ahead of Sunday, however. They may be able to put Saturday’s findings to good use in the race. “I’m feeling good. I mean I’m looking forward to it. We knew we’re taking an engine penalty here, but we knew everything is to play for still because we have crazy weather here all the time. It’s good to see that the weather is still crazy for tomorrow and hopefully it will give us an opportunity to come back on the podium from where we start.”