Charles Leclerc has sided with Max Verstappen in the debate over whether or not the FIA should have intervened to help save drivers from the effect of porpoising. The Ferrari driver – whose bouncing F1-75 was the first to alert the paddock to the return of the ground effect phenomenon back in the pre-season – believes it should be up to the teams to ensure their car is not causing their drivers any pain, not the sport's governing body. On Thursday, the FIA set out short-term and long-term plans to stop porpoising that will come into effect for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix. It comes following an Azerbaijan Grand Prix that left a number of drivers complaining of back pain, amongst other ailments.
Leclerc: My car is not undriveable, nor hard on me
Those bouncing too severely or too often in Canada will be deemed to be running an unsafe car and will, as per the regulations, be disqualified from the event, so long as they can't find a fix for the problem. That may force teams to run their cars higher than they were intended to, reducing downforce and therefore overall performance. "I don't completely agree on my side," Leclerc said, speaking to media including RacingNews365.com . "I felt like it is the team's responsibility to give me a car that is okay to drive and, until now, I didn't have any particular problems with it. "Yes, it is stiffer than last year's car. Whether it's undriveable or very hard on myself, I don't think it is. So, on our side, we found solutions to how to make it better.
Leclerc waiting to see how pecking order may change
Despite the new technical directive, Lewis Hamilton believes the pecking order will remain unchanged for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, with Red Bull and Ferrari still keeping their advantage over Mercedes. Leclerc – who now finds himself playing catch up to Verstappen in the World Championship standings – is unsure, however, and admits that he does not yet know how this weekend's track action will play out. When asked if he believes the pecking order would change, he replied: "I'm not sure to be honest. I don't know whether it will be the case or not. "For me, it's still not very clear exactly what's going to change in the future. So yeah, I don't know."
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