Dear Aunty Carla
What the heck happened?
I was on such a high after winning my home race in Monaco, and we had such high hopes of continuing that streak and close the gap to Red Bull even more in Canada. But we just couldn’t get anywhere near the pace we needed.
As it was, Carlos and I both got dumped out of qualifying in Q2 … how embarrassing!
And then, during the race, my car just felt … odd
… I don’t know how to describe it, but I knew something was wrong.
I asked my team, but they just kept saying: “Keep going.”
Then, they put me on to slick tyres, much earlier than I thought they would …
… and I ended up going backwards because it started raining again.
But the issues in my car still persisted. Then at my second pit stop we tried rebooting …
But finally, it gave up the ghost and I had to retire.
Is it too much to ask to have reliability and consistency from one race to the next, It was a big fall and I’m feeling a bit bruised from it.
Do you have any advice?
Best
Charles
My darling Charles
It was a bit of a shocker, wasn’t it?
But while it was very much hero to zero in a fortnight, by the sounds of it, there was very little, if anything, anyone could have done to prevent it.
So, I think, the first thing to do is turn down the dramatics dial my darling, unless that is you’re looking to win the Best Actor Oscar next year.
Yes, we know Ferrari do, unfortunately, have a bit of reputation when it comes to strategy and race fluffs … but this time, aside from the dubious slicks call, they weren’t to blame. With no mystic on the team, as far as I’m aware, there is no way they could have predicted what would happen.
I think you really just need to chalk this up to an unfortunate, unforeseen inchident … nothing more, nothing less.
Yes it’s disappointing after being on such a high after Monaco. But the real test of anyone’s mettle is not how you fall, how far or how fast … no, the real test is in the bouncing back and how quickly you can resume normal service, so to speak.
So my advice is simple … don’t sweat it honey … it really was out of everyone’s control, so just breathe and focus … and have faith the engineers have understood the underlying causes and resolved the issue so it won’t happen again.
Hope that helps
Much love
This article is also in Motorsport Monday dated 17 June 2024 (Page 101)
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