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Charles Leclerc explained he was able to overtake Lando Norris for second place in Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix sprint race courtesy of different deployment strategies.
Teams had little time to fine-tune their energy management set-ups due to the sprint format, with just one free practice session ahead of the opening round of qualifying.
Leclerc believes his McLaren counterpart’s lack of deployment on the main straight was instrumental in facilitating his move for second place in Turn 1 on lap 18.
“Lando on the main straight was quite slow,” the Ferrari driver said. “He didn’t have the deployment that I had. So, I knew there was an opportunity there after the first two laps.”
Leclerc eventually pulled away from Norris by four seconds at the end of the race, but failed to mount a challenge to George Russell, ending up 1.360s down under the chequered flag.
Asked if he thought he could pass the Mercedes too, the Monegasque replied: “Well, I believed in it. But after two or three laps he started to push a little bit more and I knew it was going to be difficult.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Pauline Ballet / LAT Images via Getty Images
“I saw that George had a different kind of deployment on the main straight, which meant that it was always going to be very difficult for me to get past, even if I was getting very close.”
Energy management was the least of McLaren’s worries as the MCL40 struggled in low-speed corners and, consequently, with tyre degradation – another reason why Norris failed to hold off Leclerc late on despite the latter running soft rubber.
Furthermore, drivers are expecting deployment strategies to converge as teams tweak their cars again ahead of the main qualifying session, when parc ferme comes into force, and the race.
“Surely it’s a big differentiator on a year like this year with these new cars, and we’ve seen it today. I think here in Zandvoort it’s close to impossible to overtake. And I could have never made the overtake if there wasn’t a different deployment strategy between teams,” Leclerc said, with his move on Norris the only pass that occurred in the top 15 positions.
“However, we seem to all converge to a kind of similar place coming Sunday. So I don’t expect big differences coming tomorrow.
“And also throughout the season, we’ve seen the first two, three races, there was a lot of action, a bit everywhere, because I think everybody was not so sure about what was the right thing to do. Now, again, everybody seems to converge more or less in the same place.”
“Yeah, I think everyone’s going to converge from tomorrow,” sprint winner George Russell concurred. “And it will probably be a bit challenging to overtake until you get that tyre advantage.”
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“Nowhere near good enough” – McLaren puzzled by Dutch GP sprint struggles