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hi, i'm jean! i like a lot of stuff which i'll be posting on this blog.
[Video Audio ID: Charles Leclerc speaking, introducing his special helmet for 2025 Japanese GP. He says "So here it is, special helmet for Japan. And you might wonder what's special about Japan this year. It's my 150th Grand Prix in Formula 1. Which uhm, yeah, it's quite crazy when I learned that. It just feels like yesterday when I started that dream of being a Formula 1 driver. And yeah, I never had expected to end up in Ferrari so early in my career. Still chasing the dream of becoming a World Champion. But that is the story about this helmet. Obviously, I've got Papa, my father, and Jules on the helmet as always. And obviously Japan is a very special place for what happened here a few years back for me. And it's always quite emotional to come back here. And yeah, the helmet, I love it. It's a little bit different. It's been done by hand, all of these designs on the helmet which makes it very special. And I hope my 150th Grand Prix will be a successful one."]
berobrewing: Riding (and sipping) in style 😌
F1 - 2025 Japanese Grand Prix - Thursday Press Conference - Charles Leclerc Answers Transcript
(I have noted this down based on the press conference video. FIA also posted their own transcript here but they tend to simplify the drivers' answers so I always watch the actual video. Photos by Clive Rose/Getty Images.)
Qs from F1/Tom Clarkson:
Q: Charles, let's come to you now. Can we wind it back to China, first of all... And the double disqualification, first of all, was very uncharacteristic of Ferrari. How confident are you that the team has put that behind it and that it won’t happen again here at Suzuka?
CL: I’m confident because obviously whenever you do mistakes, you learn from them, and especially when they are costing that much. Obviously, everybody is playing with the limit and trying to be as close as possible to it but to have both cars underneath it was a big pain and we didn’t need that. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s been a very difficult first part of the season. I mean, the first two races were difficult, the pace was not exactly where we expected it to be, and yeah, to lose even more points than we already did with that, it hurts the team a lot. I’m confident that we’ve learned from it. Obviously, whenever these kind of events happen we try and understand and analyse where did that go wrong and change a little bit the process of that. It was a multitude of things adding up, which makes that the margin we had took was not big enough.
Q: As you say, it’s been a difficult start to the season for Ferrari. You say it was disappointing. Just how difficult is it to extract performance from this car?
CL: Uhm (big exhale). I mean it’s as difficult as always. It’s always tricky to extract the maximum out of the car. I don’t think that it is any more difficult on a season like this; it’s just that the performance, compared to McLaren more specifically, is just not good enough. So it's not about how hard it is to extract the maximum performance out of the car, it’s just that there's not enough performance in the car for now. But little step by little step, I’m sure and confident that we can close that gap, starting from this weekend hopefully.
Q: We saw a big step from Melbourne to China. Are you expecting another step forward here?
CL: We saw a big step on Saturday – I think, I mean the Sprint race with Lewis especially. On Sunday, I think it was back to normal. So, yeah, I expect us to be more or less in line with where we were in China on Sunday and in Melbourne.
Qs from the floor:
Q: Craig Slater, Sky Sports. Second question for you Charles. Given how the team did last year, Charles, the hope was a challenge for both championships this year. Given the start you've made, is there a worry at Ferrari that that might not be a realistic ambition?
CL: Not yet. I think if we go back to last year, if we look the first few races, I think the situation in terms of performance was quite a bit worse than where we are now. We kind of expected Red Bull to dominate the whole season, and obviously by taking the points that were available at the beginning of the season with the performance that we had, we ended up the season actually fighting for the championship, which was way above our expectations starting the year. There’s definitely not this feeling within the team at the moment. However, there's definitely the feeling that we haven’t maximized what we could have for these first two races, and this is frustrating. But yeah, it doesn’t mean we cannot recover. We are aware that the season is still very long. And as I said earlier, small steps after small steps. We can still have an amazing season.
Below Qs got cut off from the uploaded video in F1TV but was part of the FIA transcript:
Q: (Jon Noble – The Race) Charles, from the outside Ferrari’s pace seems hard to explain. In Melbourne, up until Q2 it seemed to be up there, then fell away. In China, the Sprint seemed good, then fell away. Is there an explanation? Narrow set-up window? Ride height sensitivity? Tyres? Fuel load?
CL: I won’t go into very specific details. I think we’re starting to understand the car and have some ideas where we’re lacking. In Australia, it was well understood. In China, Lewis did an outstanding job on Friday – maybe some drivers didn’t put everything together in qualifying and he managed to do that and managed to outperform the car a bit. Then tyre degradation being a big thing. When you start in front, everything comes to you a bit more. But I think Lewis made a difference on Friday and Saturday, which in the second qualifying – everyone was more up to pace – we saw more of the real pace of the car. I think, very similar to last year, we have a good car in terms of race pace, but we couldn’t really show it until now. Whenever you start in the middle of the pack, degradation is worse, and you can’t really show your real pace. That’s what happened a bit on Sunday in China. So I think the pace is still as good as what we saw Saturday with Lewis. However, we can’t use it if we don’t have better qualifying pace. So if I take a step back that’s where we need to improve – qualifying. It was the case last year, and this year it seems even more so.
Q: (Fred Ferret – L’Equipe) Charles, do you have an explanation of your pace on Sunday in the race, and is it related to the broken front wing?
CL: I can assure you it’s never a good thing to have a broken front wing, so it’s not something I want to target for the rest of the year. There were some interesting things we looked at to understand where the performance was coming from. I believe the performance was really strong in terms of race pace. I made some changes already on Saturday – it was strong, especially at the end of the stint considering I was in traffic. Then we made some changes and took a step forward for Sunday’s race. So I think the overall pace was very strong. I believe it would have been stronger with a full front wing, but by changing the tools and adapting the driving, it didn’t have as much influence as we thought. But it’s still faster to have a full front wing.
💭lots of thoughts:
(full article + translation under the cut. i don't agree with some of the things vasseur has expressed here but i do think some of the things floating around in f1twt were taken out of context. two things can be true at the same time. also it's difficult to judge what was said here because a lot of tone has been lost since this was a video interview + tbh vasseur has never been great in interviews)
Even fred the journalist you like, is criticizing vasseur for his interviews, is not just fans
that's because they found their new scape goat and you're clapping along
i don't see why you can't criticize fred and yeah even my fred can have his opinions but when it treads into blaming one guy for every wrong in the history of ferrari failures i can't take you or your criticisms seriously and that includes journalists because i have the capacity to realize what ferrari excels at and it is finding the perfect person to blame for their fuckups when the noise is too loud and they can't take the heat. it's been decades like this of systematic failures that roots in bad management from the very top
do you wanna see my wounds from being nailed to the cross or are we not chill like that yet
this post is doing numbers in the f1 fandom. Who is Charles leclerc
