Only one race weekend after creating history at the Monaco GP, Charles Leclerc has suffered his first DNF of 2024. Despite starting the Canadian GP weekend relatively happier, Ferrari slid down on Saturday and Sunday has panned out worse. Team Principal Frederic Vasseur and his pit wall were under heavy fire after their qualifying failure. After the Monegasque’s retirement midway through the race, the trolling has amplified.
In FP3, Leclerc described his SF24 as “extremely slow”. His car couldn’t let go of this tag as Ferrari witnessed a double Q2 knockout, with Carlos Sainz trailing his teammate in P12. Despite such an unexpected failure, on his girlfriend Alexandra Saint Mleux’s birthday today, Leclerc declared that a podium finish was his target. But with his SF24 nursing an engine issue from Lap 1, all hopes were out the window.
“Impossible to overtake with this issue,” he told his race engineer on the team radio. A couple of seemingly tense radio exchanges followed, as his race engineer didn’t give him the desired answers to his questions. Eventually, Ferrari got the much-required Safety Car window to solve Leclerc’s engine issue. And they did, taking an unusually long 24-second pit stop. But sending him out on the Hard tires in wet conditions when all other drivers were on the Intermediates destroyed his race.
— F1 TROLL (@f1trollofficial) June 9, 2024
It was this decision that caused the eventual retirement and ended his weekend prematurely. Fans were quick to take to social media to give Frederic Vasseur & Co. an earful for their mess.
Charles Leclerc’s misery-filled Canadian GP restores Ferrari’s bad image
Before Frederic Vasseur took over as Team Principal in 2023, Ferrari’s strategic mismanagement knew no bounds. Botched pit stops and strategy calls had become their reality and Tifosi disappointingly accepted it. But after Vasseur’s arrival, the management changed for the better, and such mistakes were rare. However, the Canadian GP has revived their old image in fans’ eyes.
A screenshot of 18 drivers racing on Intermediate tires while Charles Leclerc sat dead-last with the Hard tires went viral on X. One fan couldn’t help but hilariously highlight how only Ferrari can pull off such blunders.
peak ferrari strategy
— Abigail (@the532pm) June 9, 2024
Similar to 2022, Max Verstappen once again took the lead as Ferrari, who weren’t in contention anyway, deepened this troubles. Another fan echoed the previous as the Maranello outfit underwent this horrible déjà vu.
Just Ferrari doing Ferrari things.
— DrummingMonkey (@drumming_monkey) June 9, 2024
Ferrari became the subject of mass trolling as taunts rolled in, one after the other. One X user even revived the old meme-like, robotic statement that Leclerc’s ex-race engineer became famous for: “We are checking”.
Charles : WHY ARE WE ON HARDS ferrari: We are checking
— Nate (@MCFC_Natem) June 9, 2024
Someone also highlighted how it is always the Monegasque who suffers when Ferrari messes up and not his teammate. Though Carlos Sainz DNFed too, it was because of a racing incident rather than a strategic blunder.
It’s always Leclerc for some reason
— Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (@Dumblydore99) June 9, 2024
Another fan commended Ferrari for somehow fixing the mystery engine issue under the safety car. But the absurd decision to not continue with the Intermediates on a track that was getting wetter was unfathomable for them.
They did the right thing to fix the engine under safety car, but then they put hards?
— Pedro Rito (@pedrofvrito) June 9, 2024
The team’s post-race debrief will surely be a heated one. With both Sainz and Leclerc succumbing to the changing weather conditions and some blunders, a bitter reality check has been served. McLaren looks quicker than them and Ferrari will begin the Spanish GP at square one.
The post Charles Leclerc Suffers From “Peak Ferrari Strategy” as Fans Enjoy Fred Vasseur and Co’s Blunder appeared first on EssentiallySports.
