Leclerc admits ‘I don’t know where to brake’ as he opens up on car issues and Q3 crash in Monaco

Charles Leclerc admitted “I don’t really know where to brake” around the Circuit de Monaco after winding up fourth in Qualifying, having been plagued by issues behind the wheel of his Ferrari throughout the weekend.

On paper, Leclerc made a strong start to his home event by topping FP1 and finishing second fastest in FP2 on Friday, but he was quick to point out troubles with his brakes when he spoke to the media afterwards – having also struggled in this area in Canada.

Those complaints carried over to Saturday’s running, with his efforts in FP3 hampered by a “horrendous” feeling under braking, before having to settle for P4 in Qualifying – via a crash on his final lap of the session.

Leclerc had taken provisional pole prior to improvements from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and team mate Lewis Hamilton, and his bid to improve again ended when he thumped the barriers at Tabac corner.

Sharing his emotions after the session, Leclerc sighed: “I’m very disappointed. It’s been an incredibly tough weekend. It’s been an incredibly tough two last weekends, with quite a lot of issues on my side.

“I’m pretty confident that we’ll have a solution for the next race, but so far it’s been very, very tricky. The fact that on braking I just don’t really know where to brake still... but I wouldn’t put the mistake only on that, it’s for sure a combination of things. Sometimes it’s only me; I think today it’s a bit more than only me.

“Just as a team, and on my side of the garage, it’s been a very messy weekend. We’ve had quite a lot of issues, we’ve had a lot of issues in Q3 as well. Probably nothing that people realise, but to go out of the box much earlier… there was a bit of a mess in the garage.

“But then luckily we kind of got back onto the track, and I knew I had two laps. I tried everything on the second lap, and it’s life. I didn’t finish the lap, and that’s it.”

Asked about his otherwise competitive pace, and whether he takes hope from that potential brake solution for future races, Leclerc added: “Yeah, but being quick is not… it’s always the way you are being quick.

“The fact that the whole weekend I really felt like I was… I can feel when things click around this track, and where I’m confident. I knew it would be extremely difficult to make anything work today, so the confidence was not there. I went into Qualifying trying to be confident, but I wasn’t.

“With all those issues, on a track like this, on a track like Montreal, you are paying the price. I just hope we can have a normal weekend and get back the feeling that I had before with this car.”