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A helpless Charles Leclerc has claimed that his crash in the 2023 F1 Dutch GP qualifying was not a result of him over-pushing or going over the limit. The Ferrari driver was in Q3 on his second push lap on softs when he just slid off into the barriers and brought out the red flag.
It was an innocuous crash as Charles Leclerc was pushing hard on a drying track. He slid off the track and crashed into the barriers to bring out the red flag. This wasn't the first time the Ferrari driver has ended up in the barriers this season due to a crash. Having said that, Leclerc believed that he had not pushed over the limit on his lap and it was not a result of him losing control. As quoted by Formu1a.uno, he said:
“I wasn’t over-pushing, and I wasn’t over the limit, like in Miami, for example. However, the car is really difficult to drive. We go from a lot of understeer to a lot of oversteer. We need to improve quickly, but that’s not an excuse."
As a consequence of his crash, Charles Leclerc will now start the race in P9 and will be hoping to make progress towards the front.
It has been a difficult weekend: Charles Leclerc
Reflecting on the weekend so far, Leclerc admitted that it had been a difficult one for the team. The Ferrari driver was almost eliminated in Q1 and Q2 only to make it through with a last-ditch effort. Something similar happened with teammate Carlos Sainz as well as the Spaniard navigated his way through the sessions.
Talking about the weekend so far, Leclerc said:
"It has been a difficult weekend so far and we have struggled with our car balance since the first session. We will look into it and try to improve the car to make it more predictable. It will be a tough race for us tomorrow, trying to fight our way up to the front. Let’s see what’s possible."
With Carlos Sainz starting the race in P6 and Charles Leclerc in P9, it does appear that the race weekend is set to be an uphill climb for Ferrari. It will be interesting to see what kind of a result the team can pull through in an F1 race weekend where it has continued to be on the back foot more often than not.
