Charles Leclerc had a Friday to forget at the Miami Grand Prix, with the Monegasque driver having crashed out of Free Practice 2, through a complete driver error.
The Monegasque was clearly pushing at the Miami International Autodrome has he approached Turn 8, where he lost control of his SF-23 and ploughed into the barrier, breaking his front suspension.
It was a costly error for Leclerc who thankfully didn’t damage the rear of his car, an area where Ferrari have brought updates for the first race in the United States this season.
The 25-year-old accepted that the crash was his fault and that he simply “pushed too much”, with the driver recognising that Red Bull are “again in a league of its own”.
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Charles Leclerc accepts the blame
“There’s not much too talk about,” he told the official F1 website. “I pushed too much.
“Apart from that I think the feeling is pretty good over one lap, but over the race we are so far behind.
“Red Bull is again in a league of its own, but very far in front.
“So in the race we have a lot of time to find but in qualifying, we are more or less there.”
Leclerc ended FP2 in third but almost half a second behind Max Verstappen, who demonstrated blisteringly quick pace on the opening day in Miami.
No ‘miracle’ for Ferrari and Leclerc
With Verstappen looking imperious yet again, Leclerc doesn’t see how Ferrari can “be much closer” to Red Bull, who are looking like the prime favourites for yet another 1-2 finish on Sunday.
“I don’t think we have any miracle in hand to close the gap, so I don’t think we’ll be much closer come Sunday,” admitted Leclerc.
Leclerc’s driver error was largely as a result of trying to find the absolute limit in a bid to get as close to Verstappen as possible, who looked comfortable from the very beginning of Free Practice 1.
The Ferrari driver explained following his crash that he found himself “off-line”, something which saw him lose significant grip and ultimately the rear of the car.
“Overall it is very, very tricky because there’s only one line and when you get off-line there is really poor grip,” he said. “That’s basically what happened.
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“I pushed a bit too much lost the rear, tried to recover from it, but I had no grip to turn the car.
“There’s no big damage, obviously the front but apart from that no damage to the rear of the car, which is the most important.
“Tomorrow is another day and I’m sure it will go well.”