"Was he saying that?": Charles Leclerc-Fred Vasseur relationship analyzed over the 2023 F1 Miami GP

F1 pundit Peter Windsor recently speculated whether Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur spoke to Charles Leclerc regarding where he should push the car in the 2023 F1 Miami GP.

The Monagasque had a horrendous qualifying session where he went off the track and crashed into the barrier at turn 6 in Q3. He made the same mistake on the same turn in Friday practice as well.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor speculated whether Fred Vasseur spoke to Charles Leclerc about the mistake. He mimicked how Vasseur could have told the Monagasque not to push in those areas of the track just to save himself from making the same mistake again. He said:

"I've got to revise my thinking now, because to be honest with you, I don't think Fred Vasseur should have allowed that sort of weekend to occur for Charles Leclerc. Does he just let Charles get on with it, in terms of how hard he's going to push the car, knowing that they're right on this very small operation window, the Toto Wolff-like 'window of operation' and risk having more offs?

"Or does he say, that 'Charles, you know, you've got the pace over the lap; if you're going to go quickly, if you're really going to push it, don't push it in places where it isn't going to really matter. Don't push it through those S's before the turn six, turn seven, because there's no real benefit there."

Later, Windsor stated that he is unsure whether Fred Vasseur spoke to Charles Leclerc regarding pushing the limits on certain areas of the track. He also explained how the team principal's orders are much more impactful than a race engineer's. He concluded:

"Was he saying that to Charles? I don't know. I would like to think he was, because if it's an engineer saying that to Charles he can sort of say 'Well yeah they always say that' but if it's Fred Vasseur saying that, that's a different thing."

The Ferrari driver had yet another bad race weekend in Miami as he somehow managed to finish seventh.

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Charles Leclerc on how difficult it is to drive the Ferrari SF-23

After a poor performance in the 2023 F1 Miami GP, Charles Leclerc expressed his concerns regarding the unpredictable nature of the Ferrari SF-23. He stated how he spoke to Carlos Sainz about the car's inconsistency.

The Monagasque explained how the car behaved extremely differently in a particular corner. According to pitdebrief, he said:

"I was just speaking just now with Carlos and what we are lacking is consistency in the car. It’s not even from corner to corner, it’s just in the same corner. I can have a huge oversteery balance and then a huge understeery balance and our car is so wind-affected."

It is safe to say that Ferrari are struggling quite a bit with developing the SF-23. Both drivers are unhappy with how the car is behaving with different tyre compounds and wind speeds and directions.