Ferrari hope ‘shitty’ Canada will end season concerns

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has expressed hope his squad condensed all of the “shitty” elements of a Formula 1 season into Canada last weekend.

The Italian squad endured a difficult event with both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failing to advance beyond the Q2 qualifying segment.

Its P11 and P12 starting slots came just two weeks after its strong performance around Monaco, where Leclerc secured both pole position and the race win.

Leclerc struggled with an engine concern in the early stages of the grand prix before retiring while Sainz spun on lap 53 and suffered damage when he was collected by Alex Albon.

It marked the first time since the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix that both Ferrari cars failed to finish.

“The pace was strong on Friday,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365. 

“Conditions were tricky yesterday and I think a couple of cars suffered the same issue, I won’t go deep into details.

“But we were quite confident with the race for today. The issue is the beginning, everything went wrong.

“I hope that we put all of the tough, shitty parts of the season on the same weekend.”

Ferrari hoped for Canadian GP red flag

Vasseur revealed Ferrari was holding out hope for a red flag intervention to restore Leclerc's power unit issue.

“On one side of the garage with Charles, we had, on lap two, we lost part of the power,” he said. 

“We were expecting a red flag to do a power cycle and to try to come back. But the red flag never happened.

“We had a red flag in Monaco but not in Montreal. At one stage, we had to pit, we lost almost one lap but it was done.”

Sainz, meanwhile, made contact with Stake's Valtteri Bottas during the race, resulting in car damage before his terminal spin.

“On Carlos’ side, he was not in a good position at Turn 2,” Vasseur reflected. 

”And at one stage, I don't remember exactly when because the race was quite long but the contact with Bottas, it damaged the front wing and the floor.”