Ferrari nervous over lingering Charles Leclerc nightmares

French Grand Prix

Ferrari nervous over lingering Leclerc nightmares

Leclerc has been taken out of the lead twice this season

Ewan Gale

Sunday 24 July 2022 08:00

Ferrari racing director Laurent Mekies has conceded the reliability issues that have taken Charles Leclerc out of the lead at two grands prix still linger in the Scuderia's memory.

Leclerc was comfortably leading the Spanish Grand Prix when his power unit expired, with the Monégasque then suffering the same fate in Azerbaijan.

With Carlos Sainz taking a penalty for the French Grand Prix, Mekies has insisted the team has not forgotten the issues, with Leclerc starting on pole ahead of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

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"It is always at the back of your mind," he told Sky Sports F1. "If you have a few failures from the race lead, you will not forget about them very easily.

"We have lost a few races like that this year. It is a long cycle to get on top of these issues, we know it is not something we can fix overnight so everybody is very united to try to deal with it as best as we can right now.

"Yes, it is in the back of our minds but hopefully it is something we will be dealing with better and better."

Ferrari and Red Bull differences a developing trend

Leclerc's pole position was assisted by Sainz creating a tow down the Mistral Straight and again through Signes, with Red Bull carrying an advantage in a straight line.

The Milton Keynes-based team has employed a lower-downforce set-up strategy which should play into the hands of Verstappen and Perez in wheel-to-wheel battle.

"It has been a trend that we have been running slightly more downforce and therefore more drag compared to them," added Mekies.

"Each competitor looks at the characteristics of their car and tries to put it in the best performance window.

"That is where we felt our best performance window was and straight off it is easy to see. You may get better tyre degradation with downforce but we are more exposed.

"It has played to our advantage and against us this year. We will find out tomorrow."