Charles Leclerc has revealed an issue with his chassis was behind the alarming loss of pace that saw him miss out on a podium in Formula 1‘s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Leclerc retained the lead at the start and remained ahead across the opening two stints until a sudden increase in his lap times saw him drop back to a distant fourth.
Having exited the pit lane seven seconds behind the one-stopping Lando Norris on Lap 41, Leclerc was unable to close on the McLaren despite being on fresher tyres.
Leclerc made his exasperation visible over team radio as he reported that he had “lost all competitiveness” with a problem that had made his Ferrari car “undriveable”.
That culminated in the Monegasque succumbing two spots to Oscar Piastri and George Russell, ensuring that the pole-sitter wouldn’t even be present on the rostrum.
Leclerc had bemoaned Ferrari’s decision not to listen to him once it became apparent that something was amiss, as he argued that he could have mitigated the issue.
But Leclerc disclosed that his criticism derived from the assumption that his troubles were related to a front wing alteration that was made during his second pit stop.
“First of all, I need to take back the words I’ve said in the radio because I thought that it was coming from one thing, but then I got a lot more detail since I got out of the car,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week.
“It was actually an issue coming from the chassis and nothing that we could have done differently.
“I started to feel the issue in Lap 40 or something like that, and then it got worse, laps after laps after laps, and towards the end we were two seconds off the pace.
“The car was just undriveable. But I mean, again, as I repeat myself, this was an issue and it’s an outlier. It shouldn’t ever happen again.
“I mean, I’m still very disappointed. We had one opportunity this year to win a race, which I think was this weekend.
“The first stint was perfect. The first laps of the second stint was really good as well. I think we were in pace to try and win that race.
“The last stint was a disaster when I started to have an issue in the chassis.”
Leclerc unsure what triggered Ferrari problem
Leclerc conceded he is unsure what triggered the issue, citing that the gremlin with the chassis on his Ferrari also wasn’t visible in the data to the team on the pit wall.
“I think it was quite tricky. Otherwise, I probably would have known and they would have told me,” he explained.
“But yeah, apparently it wasn’t as obvious on data. However, now you can definitely confirm that there was a problem.”
Leclerc has admitted that he knew the win had escaped his grasp the moment he sensed that something was not right with his Ferrari once he started his third stint.
“When I started to feel the issues, I didn’t really know where that came from,” he added.
“I thought it was from a change we did on the front wing at the pit stop, being too aggressive. But then, of course, it got a lot worse. It seemed a bit off to me.
“When I first felt the very strange behaviour of the car, I thought, if this is staying, it’s going to slip away from us.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris resists Oscar Piastri to head McLaren 1-2 in F1 Hungarian GP
