Hungary’s BUDAPEST — Ferrari provided two distinct justifications for their disappointing performance in Hungary on Sunday night. Charles Leclerc, the race driver, faulted the strategy, and Mattia Binotto, the team manager, blamed the car’s performance.
The messaging between the team manager and the driver was noticeably different, even though the two statements weren’t entirely unrelated. Leclerc thought the race could have been won. By crossing the finish line in sixth place, he had closed the 80-point gap between himself and Max Verstappen for the championship. Binotto declined.
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The tires are s***, Charles Leclerc yells in rage. – What did Ferrari do wrong?
Charles Leclerc claims Ferrari must “improve” in all areas after a terrible strategy cost him the chance to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and close the gap in the Formula One title.
In Hungary, new concerns about Ferrari’s strategic decisions were raised after the team’s choice to install Leclerc’s vehicle with hard tyres resulted in the team losing a possible victory and allowing Max Verstappen to snag an unusual victory and further increase his lead in the championship.
Leclerc blasted the decision over the team radio during the race, calling his tyres “crap,” and finally finished sixth after making a third pit stop to get rid of the hards. Ferrari’s choice to place him on the hard compound was afterwards referred to as a “disaster” by the driver.
Leclerc said to Sky, “We need to speak with the team and understand the reasoning behind using the hard tyre since I felt really strong with the medium.”
“Everything was in order when we went onto the hards for an unknown reason.
“I mentioned on the radio that I was at ease on the medium and that I wanted to keep driving on those tyres as long as possible because it felt wonderful. I have no idea why we made a different choice.
“Sincerity speaking, I was pleased with the tempo on my side. The only issue is that everyone will undoubtedly recall my disastrous performance over the latter leg of the race, especially with the hards.
“I essentially lost the race there. I lost 20 seconds at the pit and an additional 6 seconds over the course of 5 grueling laps because I was all over the place with the tyre.
Leclerc claims to “always feel that something is awry.” when Ferrari
Ferrari’s season has received a harsh critique from Charles Leclerc, who claimed that it seems like “something is constantly wrong.”
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari added another dubious tactic to a season in which reliability, strategy, and even his own errors have lost him race wins and World Championship points.
Leclerc was in the lead when the Scuderia stunned everyone at the track by pitting him early and switching him to hard tyres. The Scuderia had started the race on medium tyres, then switched to a second set of mediums.
It was a perplexing choice to pit him so early, after only 18 laps on his second set of medium tyres, and to switch him to hard tyres, which were problematic for the majority of drivers who ran white mark Pirellis.
Leclerc had to make a third pit stop for soft tyres, which prevented him from competing for the victory and forced him to complete the race in sixth place instead.
According to PA, Leclerc remarked, “A race like this is frustrating, and we need to get better as a team.”
“It seems like there is always something wrong, whether it is reliability, errors, or something else. We need to get better at organizing weekends.
We will now strive to make the most of the few days we have to reset while also trying to analyze and understand where we need to improve and what we can do to improve since it is crucial.
The driver expressed his confusion at Ferrari’s strategy on Sunday, saying he intended to remain out longer during the second stint since he thought his tyres were in good condition. When Ferrari summoned him in, his race was over.
“I’m not sure why we cut the second stint short and went on the hard, but the first stint was the proper time to stop, and we made the right decision there.
“I’m quite certain that this was a call to put us under pressure, but I don’t think we should have reacted to that because then it was a snowball effect for us and we lost a lot more than we should have,” the respondent said.
Charles Leclerc can not get why Ferrari’s dependability has deteriorated since their promising Formula 1 season debut.
The Monegasque driver lost the lead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday due to a fatal problem, which was his second engine failure in three races.
The most recent issue, which comes only two races after an engine failure prevented him from winning the Spanish Grand Prix, has given title contender Max Verstappen the opportunity to further increase his lead at the top of the standings, which is currently at 34 points.
Leclerc claimed there was no logical explanation for why Ferrari was now having such a bad finishing rate after winning two of the first three races of the season, and that it was difficult to accept the agony of the most recent retirement.
In the early part of the season, “We’ve been quick and we didn’t have particularly huge problems,” he said to Sky.
“Now, it appears that we have a little bit more than at the start of the season, when we made no changes. If anything, we improved the situation.
Thus, it’s now challenging to understand. But analysis will clearly be necessary. I’m not fully aware of all that occurred today.
Leclerc challenged his Ferrari team to investigate precisely what went wrong in previous weeks so that it wouldn’t continue to deprive him of compensation for the fast pace of its F1-75 rival.
It aches, Leclerc said. “To ensure that it does not occur again, we really need to look into it. Obviously, I struggle to find the appropriate words to describe. It’s quite depressing. We must investigate this immediately.
Leclerc lost crucial engine parts when he retired in Spain, and it’s probable that the Bahrain failure may compel him to buy new parts, moving him one step closer to a grid penalty.
“I’m not sure. Regarding the penalty scenario, he stated, “I have no news. “Clearly, disillusionment persists. I didn’t speak to anyone from the staff when I arrived here directly from the car, so I’m not sure what happened wrong.
Leclerc’s retirement came after his colleague Carlos Sainz also retired due to a hydraulic issue, capping a disastrous day for Ferrari.
What went wrong for Ferrari?
Ferrari unintentionally installed a set of brand-new soft tires on Leclerc’s car during his first run in the final round of qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Prior to handing him a fresh set of the red-walled compound for the last Q3 efforts, the team had planned to send him out on used softs for the first run.
Over the radio, Leclerc enquired about the tire call, to which the team responded, “Sorry, that was a mistake. After deciding against doing another run, he finished the session in fourth place overall, over eight tenths of a second slower than Max Verstappen’s best time.
After qualifying, Leclerc remarked, “I assume there was a miscommunication, it wasn’t a big deal. “But certainly I brought it up because I was a little taken aback.
After serving a power unit penalty, Leclerc will start the race from position 16 on the grid, one position behind title contender Verstappen who will also experience a grid drop.
Verstappen finished nearly six tenths of a second ahead of the competition after skipping his final run in Q3, highlighting his dominance at Spa.
Red Bull, in Leclerc’s opinion, had been “very strong” throughout the Spa weekend, and its speed had come as “a surprise, since I guess we anticipated to cut the gap in qualifying a little bit more.”
It is a wide gap. I thus hope that it will change in Zandvoort. But before that, tomorrow’s race is coming up, and we appear to be a little more competitive. We’ll see how it turns out.
George Russell, a Mercedes driver, has picked Verstappen to come from 15th on the grid and win the race. Verstappen acknowledged that he would be disappointed if he could not make a comeback to place third.
If he maintains his pace from today, Leclerc added, “I will also be sad if I don’t get back on the podium, but since he’s with me, it’s going to be very difficult for me to go back on the podium.”
But we never know, right? We can regain the lead with a strong first stint and a clean race, I’m confident.
What went wrong in Hungary for Ferrari?
Because the Ferrari’s performance on hard tyres was so poor, the team had to make a third pit stop 15 circuits later to place Leclerc on the softs as originally intended. Leclerc finished sixth as a result of the decision, which was dubious in and of itself.
What went wrong in F1 with Ferrari?
The Red Bull driver won today’s race after starting from 10th on the grid. After Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc switched to the hard tyre compound for the final stint, he passed the championship challenger twice.
According to Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, the team’s lack of performance during the race jeopardized their chances of winning regardless of their chosen strategy. In response to Verstappen’s second pit stop, Leclerc said they erred by pulling him into the pits too soon and fitted the hard tyres.
Verstappen claimed that the secret to his success today was “choosing the right tyres at the right time.”
“Of course, we know that our vehicle is quick overall, but I think Ferrari was also quite quick throughout the race; they simply made the wrong decision with the hard tyre,” he said. Therefore, there are still a lot of areas we may look into and improve upon.
Verstappen claimed that the team can still make progress despite winning from 10th on the grid at a track where overtaking is notoriously challenging.
On a circuit like this, winning the race after starting in the bottom ten is obviously very, very excellent. “However, there are a lot of things we’ll examine to see what we could have done differently.
Always, there are a few things we could have done better. Overall though, I’m obviously really pleased with today.
Verstappen stated that Red Bull must continue to improve their vehicle in order to be competitive when the championship starts at Spa-Francorchamps following the summer break.
We simply keep working and attempting to make the automobile better since, in my opinion, there are still a few places where we can improve. It will be fascinating to see how competitive we’ll be in those races after the break since they’re a little different from those on this circuit.
How did Ferrari perform in the most recent race?
On the 18th lap of the French Grand Prix on Sunday, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari left the track and collided with the safety barriers, forcing him to withdraw while holding the lead.
Max Verstappen, the leader of the championship, raced to the front, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes, and Leclerc, who was unharmed in the collision, started from pole position.
The Monegasque, who won the last Grand Prix in Austria and started this race 38 points behind Verstappen, was on pace to repeat after dominating qualifying on Saturday.
However, Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari on the 18th loop of the Paul Ricard track at Le Castellet, spinning off and coming to a stop in the safety barriers at a low pace.
Similar to the throttle issue that prevented him from winning in Austria two weeks prior, this one seemed to be the cause of his failure.
When his condition was inquired about after the incident over the team radio, he yelled, “I cannot get off throttle.”
He let out a loud “Noooooo!” to express his annoyance, but he was still able to get out of the automobile without getting hurt.