Charles Leclerc blames ‘aggressive Ferrari setup’ for his Miami GP crash in Q3

Aggressive setup causes Charles Leclerc to spin out and crash

Charles Leclerc blames ‘aggressive Ferrari setup’ for his Miami GP crash in Q3

Charles Leclerc after Miami GP crash

Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari SF-23 during the Miami Grand Prix qualifying session, and he himself admitted that it was unacceptable. On his first flying lap, he had a lock-up, and in a bid to improve his position, he lost control of his car at Turn 6/7 and spun into the barriers.

This was not the first time he made such an error during the session, as he had already made a mistake on his first lap of Q3, which resulted in him securing only the seventh-fastest time. He secured the pole last weekend at Baku after a last-lap crash inviting a red flag.

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Leclerc was trying to extract the maximum from his Ferrari SF-23 and believed choosing a difficult setup was the best way to achieve this. However, he admitted that he may have gone too far in that direction, resulting in him crashing out in the qualifying session.

The Monegasque driver acknowledged being hard on himself. Conveying his disappointment, he stated that he took a risk with his setup, “I think I put myself also in a difficult situation because I wanted a very aggressive set-up for qualifying, knowing that this was a set-up I will need to extract the most out of the car. I probably did a step too far, and this is something I’ll look at after the weekend,”.

Related: ‘It was very tricky,’ Carlos Sainz reveals details on possibly missing out on pole position for the 2023 F1 Miami GP

Charles Leclerc claims tailwinds were a factor in his tricky day

Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc


Leclerc, lamenting his crash during the qualifier, stated that Ferrari suffers from weak tailwinds: “Whenever we have a tailwind, we suffer more from other cars.” However, he clarified that he prefers the car to be tricky, as that is the best way to drive it.

Leclerc added that he would have pulled off Q3 nine times out of 10, but on this occasion, he hit the wall twice and wrecked his car. According to him, this is not the level of performance he expects from himself.

Sergio Perez of Red Bull finished in pole position at the Miami GP qualifiers, followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Moreover, the weather forecasters cautioned the drivers as it may rain during the event.

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