Charles Leclerc has revealed how he was stunned by observations Lewis Hamilton made about the behaviour of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Despite Ferrari and Mercedes pursuing mid-season concept changes, both teams were powerless to stop Red Bull from claiming victory in all but one race en route to the title.
Max Verstappen was responsible for 19 of those wins – including a record-breaking 10 in a row from Miami to Monza – to wrap up a third consecutive Drivers’ Championship.
Hamilton had capitalised on Mercedes’ strong run in Austin to shadow Verstappen closely during that weekend’s Sprint, where he learnt more about the RB19’s strengths.
“I think the only place we are on the level of them is probably in the low speed,” Hamilton explained after the United States Grand Prix.
“Our car has generally been good in low speed for the last couple of years. But the higher the speed you go, the more the separation you see and that’s why you saw them being so quick in Suzuka.
“It’s always a good experience to be behind them because you can see first-hand where the car is stronger and where they can get on the power earlier than most of us. The car moves a lot less, so degradation of the rear tyres is much more easy to manage.
Next time out in Mexico, Leclerc finished third behind that pair and he has disclosed that the Mercedes driver opened up on his findings regarding Red Bull’s dominant car.
However, Leclerc admits that he was surprised Hamilton was able to identify such details from the cockpit, instead preferring to conduct his analysis using video footage.
“I spoke to Lewis after Mexico, where he told me that he can see exactly where Max’s car is better,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.
“Maybe that’s true for him, but I have to tell you that I can’t possibly recognise the details.
“We’re talking about differences of millimetres in ground clearance or suspension travel. You can of course see whether a car has softer or harder suspension and at which points it gains time on you.
“I prefer to look at the footage from the on-board cameras. You can see from the driver’s helmet what the car does and doesn’t do on the track.”
Verstappen’s fifth victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was part of a seven-race unbeaten run at the end of the year that saw him conclude with an 86% win rate.
The Dutchman was only defeated once – in Singapore – across the last 18 rounds, but Leclerc thinks it would be a mistake to believe that Verstappen had an easy season.
“That would be very unfair,” the Monegasque racer issued. “Of course he’s in a comfortable position today, but he had to put in a lot of work to get there.
“And they’ve simply done a good job to get to where they are now. I respect that. Now we have to do an equally good job to catch up with them.”
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