Leclerc hoping for ‘first clean weekend since Miami’ at Silverstone

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In the round-up: Charles Leclerc says he hopes to have his first “clean weekend” at Silverstone this weekend since the Miami Grand Prix in early May.

In brief

Leclerc hopes for ‘first clean weekend since Miami’ at Silverstone

Leclerc finished second in the Miami Grand Prix to Max Verstappen, leaving Florida with a 19 point lead over the Red Bull driver in the championship. Since then, the Ferrari driver has fallen to third in the standings and nearly 50 points behind his rival.

He says he is looking forward to this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone and believes Ferrari may be stronger at the high speed circuit than in recent seasons.

“This year we’ve got a bit more of a competitive car compared to the last times we came here, so hopefully we can have a clean weekend finally, because since Miami it’s not been great,” said Leclerc. “So hopefully we can get back on track and get back a win.

“I think the next four races will be very important, just before the summer break, to go into the holidays with four good races would be great. So now we need to focus on ourselves. I think the performance is there. If we’ve got clean weekends, I’m pretty sure the results will follow. But again, we just need to focus on ourselves and then the results will come.”

Silverstone could be “pretty awesome” in new cars – Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo expects the new 2022 Formula 1 cars will feel “pretty awesome” around the high speed Silverstone circuit.

F1 cars were heavily overhauled this season to generate most of their downforce through ground effect under the car floor. Ricciardo believes that the new concept cars will be enjoyable through the many high speed corners around one of the quickest circuits on the calendar.

“The only thing that will hold cars back in the high-speed is probably ride and potential porpoising because that does upset the balance, but if that is not too much of an issue, I think the high speed is going to be pretty awesome,” said Ricciardo.

“Compared to last year, probably the only thing that will make it slower is the extra weight. So I’m not sure we’ll be as quick as last year in the high speed. But I think as far as the grip and the feel, it will be pretty mega.”

Alfa Romeo “can’t afford” to keep losing practice time, says Bottas

Alfa Romeo team “can’t afford” to keep losing valuable track time in practice as it fights to keep ahead of its rivals in the constructors’ championship, says Valtteri Bottas.

The former Mercedes driver has missed out on significant running in practice sessions over six of the first nine rounds of this year’s championship due to either mechanical problems or as a result of accident damage. He says the team will be “penalised” if they keep losing running due to problems.

“It has made things more difficult,” says Bottas. “Sometimes I think we made some pretty awesome recoveries from difficult Fridays – I think Miami was a good example for me.

“It’s so close in the midfield and tracks that hundredths of a second matter, you just can’t afford losing track time. At the same time, everyone is out there learning and fine tuning their set up. It’s Formula 1 and you can’t afford it. It will always penalise you.”

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Comment of the day

With Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ Ignite Partnership announcing their first grants aimed at encouraging greater participation from under-represented groups of society in motorsport and Formula 1, @robbie can’t help but note the timing of the announcement….

Whether or not the announcement of these grants was always going to be today, or was moved to today, the timing is perfect in answer to Vips and Piquet and Ecclestone.
Robbie

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Tom Moloney, Pj and Jesper Mug!

On this day in motorsport

  • 60 years ago today Bruce McLaren won the non-championship Reims Grand Prix after early leader John Surtees dropped out with a broken valve spring

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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4 comments on “Leclerc hoping for ‘first clean weekend since Miami’ at Silverstone”

  1. I consider the four remaining races pre-summer break critical for his championship chance to stay realistic.

    I like both helmet designs.

    Death threats even though he hasn’t done anything particular, nor has he been involved in anything questionable.

    Zhou is unlikely to get sacked, so Pourchaire should be realistic with his expectation, as even winning the championship wouldn’t necessarily be enough. More likely a similar situation to Piastri this year.

  2. Jonathan Parkin
    1st July 2022, 10:18

    When I read Lando and his girlfriend were getting online abuse and whatnot I was like what the chuff. He’s done nothing wrong and he gets threatened

    1. Welcome to the internet.

  3. Some interesting deleted comments here…

Comments are closed.