Charles Leclerc is “disappointed” with his 4th place in Bahrain but remains optimistic in the fight against Red Bull

Charles Leclerc was starting on the front row for this first Grand Prix of the season on the Sakhir circuit. He had ambitions other than finishing at the foot of the podium, especially behind his teammate.

A penalizing brake issue

After the Grand Prix, he detailed the problems encountered during the race on Canal Plus microphone:

We were completely at a standstill throughout the race. We had an issue with the brakes. They weren’t working on the right side, they were working too much on the left. So I drove with a brake distribution that was completely silly. We maximized what we had today but it’s disappointing because it was an opportunity to score points for the championship and we didn’t do it. I am very disappointed.

During his first stint, a little over 10 laps longer, he was successively overtaken by George Russell, Sergio Perez, and Carlos Sainz. It seemed impossible for the Ferrari driver to fight back, or at least to compete. He locked up his front wheels several times, notably in turn 10, the trickiest corner of the circuit. Even after his first pit stop, where he successfully pulled off the undercut on Carlos Sainz, the situation did not improve. Quickly overtaken again by the Spaniard, he was not in podium contention.

Only George Russell remained within striking distance, suffering on his overheating Mercedes. As a symbol, it was in the same turn 10 where Leclerc struggled at the beginning of the race, that the British driver left the door wide open for him by missing the apex and his braking point. The Scuderia driver seized the opportunity to climb to fourth place, and he held on to it until the checkered flag.

Unexploited potential, a sign of optimism ahead of Jeddah.

Charles Leclerc seems even more frustrated as the Red Bulls don’t seem out of reach for him. He missed out by just over two-tenths of a second from the pole position and Max Verstappen in qualifying. He appeared to have the Dutchman’s lap time within his grasp. But more significantly, Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari fell short by less than 3 seconds of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull in the race.

Interviewed by Laurent Dupin about Red Bull’s domination, he remained optimistic: “They have a good margin, but I feel like they are more beatable compared to last year. I was quite confident for this race. That’s why I’m frustrated; we had done everything to put ourselves in a good position for the race. Even in terms of settings, I tried to focus more on the race side. I was looking forward to seeing what we could do today, but unfortunately, we won’t see it, and we will have to wait until Jeddah.”

Response in a week, where the temperature and the winding track of the Saudi Arabia circuit could possibly shake things up.