George Russell believes Ferrari may have been forced to alter Charles Leclerc’s set-up during the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix to avoid excessive plank wear.
The Mercedes driver made the comments after snatching a podium from the Monegasque in the closing stages of the race.
After the race, the Briton reiterated his displeasure over his on-track conduct but also shared a technical theory as a possible explanation for the Ferrari’s sudden drop-off.
“He’s not going to tell you that they’re close to being illegal,” Russell told Sky Sports F1. “I saw how slow he was, so I presumed something was not right.
“The only thing we can think of is they were running the car too low to the ground and they had to increase the tyre pressures for the last stint.”
Starting fourth, Russell surged past Lando Norris at the start and soon found himself chasing a fading Leclerc, who blamed chassis issues for his lack of pace.
Following a tense battle and complaints over team radio about Leclerc’s defensive moves, Russell sealed the overtake that gave him third into Turn 1 on Lap 62.
However, Russell explained how his suspicions about Ferrari’s set-up came after catching up to the rear of Leclerc’s car on Lap 41, suggesting the team may have made changes to avoid a potential rules breach.
He noted Leclerc’s lack of straight-line speed and speculated on the reasons behind it.
“[They] were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank wear,” he assessed.
“That’s the only thing we can think of based upon the lap times and the engine mode they were running and stuff like that.”
He said he was “really pleased” to return to the podium for the first time since his win in Canada back in June, but acknowledged it had been “a strange weekend” in terms of performance throughout the grid.
“If you exclude McLaren and you look at the order of P3 to P13, it’s quite odd,” he noted.
“You wouldn’t expect Max [Verstappen] to be so far down. Aston had an amazing weekend. So we’ll take the positives and we won’t get carried away with it.”
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc reveals Ferrari issue that caused alarming drop in F1 Hungarian GP
